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https://archive.org/details/christiancitizen00rnart_0 


Christian  Citizenship. 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP 


A  MANUAL 


BY 


CARLOS  MARTYN 


Author  of  “  Wendell  Phillips:  The  Agitator,”  “John  B.  Gough: 
The  Apostle  of  Cold  Water,”  Editor  of  the  Series 
of  “American  Reformers,”  etc. 


N£w  York 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 
London  and  Toronto 
1897 


Copyright,  1897,  by 
FUNK  &  WAGNAUUS  COMPANY 
[Registered  at  Stationers’  Hall,  England] 
PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 

CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

I.  The  Male  Citizen, 

II.  The  Female  Citizen,. 

PART  II. 

CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

I.  Why  Christian  Citizenship  ? 

II.  Power  and  Responsibility  of  Chris¬ 

tian  Voters,  .... 

PART  III. 

THE  ARENA. 

I.  Primary  and  Ballot  Box, 

II.  The  Civil  Service, 

III.  Unrestricted  Immigration, 

IV.  The  Liquor  Appetite  and  Traffic, 

V.  Social  Evil, 

VI.  Gambling,  .... 


1 1-22 
23-42 

45“49 

5Q-56 

59-66 

67-79 

80-89 

90-101 

102-121 


1 22-1 30 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


VII.  The  Devil  in  Ink,  .  .  131-141 

VIII.  The  American  Sunday,  .  142-158 

IX.  Youg  People’s  Societies  and  Chris¬ 

tian  Citizenship,  .  .  159-165 

X.  Organization  —  Basis,  Objects,  and 

Methods,  ....  1 66-1 86 

XI.  “  Hitch  Your  Wagon  to  a  Star,”  187-192 

Appendix,  .  .  .  195-2 13 

Index,  .  .  .  215-224 


preface. 


Some  years  since  the  writer  put  his  pulpit  on 
wheels,  made  a  meeting-house  of  the  continent, 
and  began  to  preach  a  series  of  peripatetic  ser¬ 
mons  with  Christian  citizenship  for  the  uniform 
text.  Ashe  proceeded  in  his  work  he  discovered 
the  need  of  appropriate  literature  —  a  need  every¬ 
where  confessed  and  lamented.  To  meet  the 
want,  and  in  compliance  with  urgent  request,  he 
has  prepared  this  Manual. 

The  title  defines  the  necessary  limits  of  the 
work  It  does  not  undertake  an  elaborate  discus¬ 
sion  ;  that  would  require  a  library,  but  aims 
simply  at  an  outline  of  the  tumultuous  issues 
which  now  tax  the  thought  and  evoke  the  reme¬ 
dial  energy  of  Christian  citizens.  Nevertheless, 
an  attempt  has  been  made  to  conduct  the  treat¬ 
ment  in  a  philosophical  spirit,  and  in  the  order  of 
logical  sequence.  Part  I.  consists  of  two  chapters, 
under  the  caption  of  Citizenship  in  the  United 
States,  and  is  foundational.  Part  II.  deals,  also 
in  two  chapters,  with  the  modification  of  Ameri¬ 
can  citizenship,  known  as  Christian  Citizen¬ 
ship.  Part  III.  leads  Christian  citizens  into  the 
Arena,  and,  in  a  succession  of  chapters,  indi- 


Vlll 


PREFACE. 


cates  the  subjects  which  challenge  their  attention, 
together  with  the  means  whereby  law  and  order 
may  secure  the  victory.  In  the  Appendix  a 
mass  of  corroborative  or  illustrative  material  is 
grouped.  A  complete  Index  is  subjoined. 

It  is  confidently  believed  that  the  Manual  con¬ 
tains  a  suggestive  discussion  not  elsewhere  to  be 
found  between  two  covers.  As  a  labor-saver, 
therefore,  and  as  an  indicator  of  what  the  French 
call  “burning  questions,”  and  of  remedial  agen¬ 
cies,  it  has  a  value  of  its  own.  Hence  it  is  com¬ 
mended  to  the  attention  of  clergymen,  young 
people’s  societies,  and  sociological  students. 

Christian  citizenship  is  the  latest,  largest,  and 
most  hopeful  movement  of  the  times.  Its  youth 
explains  its  lack  of  distinctive  literature.  Its 
promise  is  fitted  at  once  to  provoke  and  reward 
study. 

As  Noah  sent  the  dove  from  the  ark  to  find  the 
land  when  the  deluge  began  to  subside,  so  is  this 
dove  dismissed  to  flutter  down  upon  the  reappear¬ 
ing  earth  under  the  flood  of  evils  so  long  pre¬ 
valent  in  America. 

CARGOS  MARTYN. 


Chicago,  January,  1897. 


PART  I. 


CITIZENSHIP  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


i. 

THE  MATE  CITIZEN. 

The  word  citizen1  has  a  high,  historic  mean¬ 
ing.  Riding  like  a  king  in  his  chariot,  it  comes 
down  to  us  from  the  Greeks,  through  the  Romans, 
and  across  the  Middle  Ages,  resplendent  with 
honor  and  proud  with  dignity.  In  the  ancient 
civilization  the  citizen  was  a  member  of  a  haughty, 
exclusive  class.  Below  him,  and  subjedt  to  him, 
stood  all  others  in  the  state  who  were  outside  of 
this  class.  Among  the  Greeks  admission  to 
citizenship  was  easy  at  first,  but  difficult  after 
Grecian  civic  life  had  reached  a  higher  degree  of 
organization  —  so  difficult  that  in  Sparta,  accord¬ 
ing  to  Herodotus,  there  were  only  two  instances 
of  naturalization.  In  Rome,  under  the  Republic, 
citizenship  was  conferred  by  a  vote  of  the  people 
like  membership  in  a  modern  club.  And  there 
were  perfedt  and  less  perfedt  citizens.  All  the 


12 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


private  rights  of  citizenship  belonged  to  citizens 
of  the  lower  class,  but  the  honors  of  the  magis¬ 
tracy  were  denied  them.  Rater,  when  the  Caesars 
ruled,  citizenship  in  whatever  form  was  abolished; 
and  the  Code  of  Justinian  divided  all  persons  into 
subjects  and  slaves. 

The  Middle  Ages  inherited  the  political  forms 
and  names  of  Greece  and  Rome,  both  republican 
and  monarchical.  The  Italian  republics  were 
based  on  aristocracy  and  cemented  with  the  blood 
of  historic  houses.  The  Republic  of  Holland  was 
built  upon  great  land-holders.  The  Swiss  repub¬ 
lics  were  little  groups  of  cousins  united  by  blood 
relationship.  Around  them  loomed  the  colossal 
monarchies  of  medieval  Kurope,  with  the  throne 
for  the  sun  and  the  nobility  for  the  siderial 
system.  All  through  the  past  the  distinction 
between  a  citizen  and  a  subjeCt  was  this,  that 
while  the  latter  was  governed,  the  former  also 
governed ;  so  that  while  a  citizen  might  be  a 
subjeCt,  many  subjects  were  not  citizens.  This 
epigram  defines  the  difference  between  the  ancient 
and  medieval  republics  on  one  hand,  and  the 
monarchies  on  the  other  :  those  were  ruled  by 
citizens;  these  were  dominated  by  royalty.  Both 
the  terms  and  the  distinction  have  survived  to  our 
day,  and  find  practical  illustration  here  and 
abroad. 

The  American  Republic  is  founded,  not  on 


THK  MALE  CITIZEN. 


I3 


privilege,  like  the  Greek  and.  Roman  States,  not 
on  lineage,  like  the  republics  of  Italy  in  the  Mid¬ 
dle  Ages  ;  not  on  land  proprietorship,  like  the 
Republic  of  Holland  ;  not  on  blood  relationship, 
like  the  Swiss  Cantons  —  but  upon  manhood.  Our 
fathers  said  :  “Just  as  a  man  is  able  to  take  care 
of  himself  physically,  mentally,  morally  and  finan¬ 
cially,  so  is  he  able  to  take  care  of  himself  politi¬ 
cally.  ’  ’  They  said:  ‘  ‘  We  will  build  an  every-day, 
working  State  on  the  basis  of  the  average  man.” 
Recognizing  the  truth  that  responsibility  is  the 
great  educator,  they  placed  responsibility  for  the 
common  weal  on  the  citizens  of  the  country .  An 
American  citizen  is  thus  defined  in  Article  XIV., 
Section  i ,  of  the  Constitution :  “All  persons 
born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States,  and  sub¬ 
ject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  the  State  wherein  they 
reside.  No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law 
which  shall  abridge  the  privileges  or  immunities 
of  citizens  of  the  United  States  ;  nor  shall  any 
State  deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  prop¬ 
erty  without  due  process  of  law,  nor  deny  to  any 
person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection 
of  the  laws.” 

In  Article  XV.,  Section  i,  the  elective  franchise 
is  made  the  indefeasible  prerogative  of  the  citizen. 
“The  right  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  to 
vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the 


14  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

United  States  or  any  State  on  account  of  race, 
color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude.” 

Thus  the  American  citizen  stands  before  the 
world  the  peer  of  any  Bourbon  or  Guelph,  or 
Romanoff,  or  Hapsburg,  or  Holienzollern,  of 
them  all.  He  is  the  heir  of  the  liberty  of  the 
past,  and  the  exponent  of  the  liberty  of  the  pre¬ 
sent —  not  Caesar  was  more  sovereign  than  he. 

The  essential  principle  of  American  citizenship 
is  this,  that  no  man  and  no  set  of  men  shall  be 
politically  dependent  on  any  other  man  or  set  of 
men,  but  that  each  shall  be  armed  for  self-defense. 
The  weapon  of  this  self-defense  is  the  ballot  — 

- -  a  weapon  firmer  set 

And  better  than  the  bayonet  ; 

A  weapon  that  comes  down  as  still 
As  snowflakes  fall  upon  the  sod  ; 

Yet  executes  a  freeman’s  will 
As  lightning  does  the  will  of  God.” 

Certain  critics  on  the  other  side  of  the  water, 
echoed  by  un-American  whiners  here  at  home, 
who  borrow  their  tone  from  Condon  and  Berlin, 
contend  that  the  founders  of  the  American  Com¬ 
monwealth  made  a  mistake  in  this  matter  of  man¬ 
hood  suffrage.  Governments  which  rest  on  caste 
naturally  hold  that  opinion.  Individuals  among 
us,  who  say  all  men  are  politically  equal,  and  are 
afraid  they  will  be,  as  naturally  echo  it.  “The 
idea,  ’  ’  cries  Mr.  Purseproud,  ‘  ‘  of  neutralizing  my 


THE  MALE  CITIZEN. 


15 


vote  by  the  vote  of  a  poverty-stricken  ignora¬ 
mus!  ”  This  sentiment  is  congenial  to  Mr.  Blue- 
blood,  who  comes  of  one  of  the  best  families  —  the 
best  part  of  which,  like  the  potato,  is  under  ground. 

Washington  and  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  knew 
the  dangers  which  manhood  suffrage  would  entail. 
They  also  knew  that  a  State  can  be  safe  and  happy 
only  in  proportion  to  the  safety  and  happiness  of 
the  people.  They  meant  by  manhood  suffrage  to 
put  wealth  and  culture  under  bonds  to  see  to  it 
that  every  citizen  had  an  equal  chance  with  every 
other.  When  Russian  Czar,  or  German  Kaiser,  or 
British  Queen  looks  down  into  the  cradle  of  pov¬ 
erty  and  ignorance,  the  gaze  is  animated  by  com¬ 
passion.  When  riches  and  knowledge  in  this 
country  behold  the  cradle  of  ignorance  and  pov¬ 
erty,  they  realize  that  that  baby  fist  is  one  day  to 
hold  the  ballot,  and  that  this  ballot  may  prove  to 
be  Thor’s  hammer,  smiting  to  ruin  interests  near 
and  dear  to  them.  Not  out  of  philanthropy, 
therefore,  but  inspired  by  the  instindl  of  self- 
preservation,  they  hasten  to  put  the  Church  on 
one  side  of  that  cradle,  and  on  the  other  side  the 
School.  In  America  morality  and  education  are 
not  a  mere  expression  of  solicitude  ;  they  are  pro¬ 
visions  made  by  the  State  in  the  interest  of  self- 
preservation.  Was  it  not  a  master-stroke  on  the 
part  of  our  fathers  to  so  arrange  the  elements  of  the 
Commonwealth  that  selfishness  should  impel  us 


1 6  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

to  make  the  amplest  provision  for  instruction  and 
virtue  ?  As  a  chain  is  not  stronger  than  its 
weakest  link,  so  a  State  is  no  better  than  its 
average  citizen.  The  best  way  in  which  to 
strengthen  the  State  is  to  raise  the  average. 

This  suggests  a  correlate  truth.  Whatever  en¬ 
dangers  the  Republic  may  be  summarily  dealt  with 
by  it.  The  safety  of  the  people  is  the  supreme 
law  —  Salus  populi  suprema  est  lex ,  as  the  Tatin 
maxim  runs.  The  right  of  the  government  to 
abolish  special  inimical  traffics,  such  as  the  liquor 
trade,  gambling  and  brothel-keeping,  is  denied 
by  shallow  thinkers.  But  this  authority  inheres 
in  the  right  of  the  government  to  exist.  Under 
democratic  institutions  law  has  no  sanction  save 
the  purpose  and  virtue  of  the  people.  A  drunk¬ 
en  people,  a  horde  of  gamblers,  a  constituency 
poisoned  by  licentiousness,  can  not  be  the  basis  of 
a  free  government.  The  vices  can  never  be  cor¬ 
ner-stones  of  righteousness,  prosperity,  and  perpe¬ 
tuity.  “  To  us,”  therefore,  as  Wendell  Phillips 
has  declared,  “the  title-deeds  of  whose  estates, 
and  the  safety  of  whose  lives  depend  upon  the 
tranquillity  of  the  streets  and  the  morality  of  the 
people,  the  presence  of  any  vice  which  brutalizes 
the  average  citizen  is  a  stab  at  the  heart  of  the 
nation.”  For  this  reason  publicists  are  substan¬ 
tially  agreed  that  the  Republic  has  full  control 
over  the  whole  domain  of  the  public  weal. 


THK  MAIvK  CITIZEN. 


17 

We  do  not  always  realize  the  high  educational 
value  of  manhood  suffrage.  How  is  it  possible 
to  listen  to  a  debate  of  great  questions,  ‘  ‘  burning 
questions,”  as  the  French  say,  by  the  famous  de¬ 
baters  of  the  land,  without  a  broadening  of  the 
intelligence  ?  An  eledtion  like  that  of  1896,  which 
involved  free- trade  and  tariff,  the  currency,  the  in¬ 
dependence  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  boundary 
line  betwixt  national  and  state  rights,  and  a  dozen 
lesser  issues,  was  better  than  a  thousand  colleges. 
Suffrage  is  the  people’s  university.  And  the  re¬ 
sult  of  every  eledtion  vindicates  the  truth  of  Talley  - 
rand’s  mot ,  that  “  everybody  is  cleverer  than  any¬ 
body.”  Tocqueville,  in  his  marvellous  treatise 
on  ‘  ‘  Democracy  in  America,  ’  ’  with  the  surprising 
intuitiveness  of  the  French  mind,  perceived  this, 
ahead  of  all  experiment.  He  affirmed  that  the 
ballot-box  and  the  jury-box  are  the  normal  school 
of  America.  The  jury-box  :  because  the  citizen 
who  sits  in  that  box  to  adjudicate  questions  which 
concern  his  neighbor’s  property,  or  liberty,  or 
life,  necessarily  becomes  acquainted  with  the 
phrases  and  phases  of  the  law.  The  ballot-box  : 
because  the  citizen  who  drops  his  vote  there  is  ed¬ 
ucated  by  his  sense  of  responsibility,  and  recog¬ 
nizes  the  fact  that  he  is  a  court  of  ultimate  appeal 
and  final  decision. 

This  consciousness  lifts  our  citizenship  into  un¬ 
precedented  seriousness.  Any  thoughtful  ob- 


IS  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

server  who  is  familiar  with  Europe,  must  have 
noticed  how  much  lower  the  level  of  conversation 
is  there  than  it  is  here.  There,  men  chatter  ; 
here,  they  talk.  There,  the  staple  of  remark  is 
the  latest  marriage,  the  newest  scandal,  the  last 
fad.  Here,  men  discuss  right  and  wrong,  public 
policies  which  they  mature  and  settle,  crops,  rents, 
markets  —  large  questions,  which  broaden  the 
mind,  and  touch  the  essence  of  government  and 
daily  life. 

It  is  brought  as  an  objection  to  manhood  suf¬ 
frage  that  the  poor  and  ignorant  sell  their  votes. 
There  are  instances  of  this.  But  in  such  cases 
who  are  the  purchasers  ?  Oftener  than  otherwise, 
are  they  not  wealthy  and  educated  men,  who  have 
had  training,  who  are  pushed  by  no  sharp  need, 
and  who  know  better  and  might  afford  the  lux¬ 
ury  of  a  conscience  ?  Is  it  any  worse  to  sell  than 
it  is  to  buy  ?  Shall  we  disfranchise  the  poverty 
and  ignorance  which  do  the  one,  and  enfran¬ 
chise  the  wealth  and  education  that  do  the  other  ? 

After  all,  be  it  noted  that  the  dry  rot  of  legis¬ 
lative  corruption,  the  rancor  of  party  spirit,  the 
tyrrany  of  incorporated  wealth,  the  bad  example 
of  profligacy ,  are  found  oftener  among  the  classes 
than  among  the  masses.  As  in  chemistry,  the 
scum  floats  uppermost.  Carlyle  once  said:  “Demo¬ 
cracy  will  prevail  when  men  believe  the  vote  of 
Judas  as  good  as  the  vote  of  Jesus  Christ.”  The 


THE  MALE  CITIZEN. 


19 


answer  is  that  Judas  was  an  apostle,  not  a  mere 
church  member.  Always  and  everywhere  Judas 
belongs  oftener  to  the  classes  than  to  the  masses. 
As  an  objection  to  manhood  suffrage,  therefore, 
this  plea  falls  to  the  ground.  It  flouts  any  form 
of  suffrage  ;  nay,  it  would  make  all  government 
impossible.  Corruption,  whether  private  or  pub¬ 
lic,  whether  among  the  rich  or  among  the  poor,  is 
never  to  be  condoned,  and  is  always  to  be  con¬ 
demned.  But  as  an  objection  to  manhood  suf¬ 
frage  it  is  equally  unsound  and  absurd. 

On  a  certain  memorable  occasion  Abraham  Bin- 
coin  overheard  some  one  say  :  “  Isn’t  Lincoln  a 

common-looking  fellow  ?  ’  ’  His  immortal  reply 
was  :  ‘  ‘  Evidently  the  Almighty  must  like  us 

common-looking  fellows,  or  he  wouldn’t  have 
made  so  many  of  us.”  Government  should  be 
conducted  for  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest 
number.  This  dicftum  necessitates  popular  gov¬ 
ernment,  and  results  in  democracy.  The  theory 
of  the  ancient  society  was  that  the  masses  were 
born  saddled  and  bridled  to  be  ridden,  and  that 
the  classes  were  born  booted  and  spurred  to  ride. 
The  lines  of  Robert  Burns  voice  the  theory  of  the 
modern  social  order  : 

“  For  a’  that,  and  a’  that, 

Our  toils’  obscure,  and  a’  that, 

The  rank  is  but  the  guinea’s  stamp, 

The -man’s  the  gowd  for  a’  that.” 


20 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


Since  the  citizen  is  thus  supreme  in  America,  it 
follows  that  he  is  responsible.  L ’  etat  cest  moi,  said 
I^ouis  XIV.— ‘  ‘  I  am  the  State.  ’  ’  What  the  grand 
monarque  said  in  his  pride,  the  American  citizen 
may  say  in  his  humility — 4  I  am  the  State. 
Aord  Brougham  once  said  :  “In  England  the 
Queen  is  in  place  ;  the  House  of  Commons  is  in 
power.”  In  the  United  States,  whoever  is  presi¬ 
dent,  the  people  are  in  power.  Hence  the  people 
are  praiseworthy  when  affairs  go  right,  and 
blameworthy  when  affairs  go  wrong.  Nor  can 
we  abdicate  the  throne.  Born,  like  other  princes, 
in  the  purple,  and  called  to  rule  by  a  diviner  right 
than  other  kings,  we  must  accept  the  accountabil¬ 
ity  of  power.  Are  there  bad  laws  on  the  statute 
book?  We  are  to  blame.  We  put  them  there, 
actively  or  passively.  We  permit  them  to  remain 
there.  Are  good  laws  unenforced?  We  are  in 
fault.  We  do  not  insist  upon  their  execution. 

The  indifference  and  preoccupation  of  large  and 
influential  sections  of  our  citizenship  is  now  the 
chief  menace  to  republican  institutions.  Other¬ 
wise  good  men  are  too  busy  making  pilgrimages 
to  the  shrine  of  mammon,  and  worshiping  that 
trinity  of  trade,  the  gold  eagle,  the  silver  dollar 
and  the  copper  cent  —  to  give  thought  and  time  to 
the  functions  of  citizenship.  The  need  of  the 
hour  is  the  personalizing  of  political  duty.  Here, 
as  elsewhere,  the  word  ought  is  the  weighty  word 


THE  MATE  CITIZEN. 


21 


and  the  final  word.  Power  entails  obligation.  It 
were  well  for  ourselves  and  for  our  country  if  this 
truth  were  perceived  and  abted  upon  by  every 
American  citizen. 

What  a  country  we  have  to  love  and  serve !  “A 
country  which  fulfils  the  exadt  conditions  of  phy¬ 
sical  health,”  as  Tom  Marshall,  of  Kentucky, 
used  to  say;  “  head  lifted  amid  the  cool  breezes 
of  the  tonic  north  ;  feet  bathed  in  the  tepid  waters 
of  the  Gulf —  head  cool,  feet  warm.  ’  ’  America  is 
an  epitome  of  the  globe.  It  is  full  of  nimble  little 
rivers  which  gladly  turn  the  turbines  of  mills 
before  they  run  weary  to  the  sea  —  and  of  majestic 
streams,  which  drain  a  continent  and  float  the 
commerce  of  forty-five  stalwart  States.  Its  east¬ 
ern  and  western  shores  are  washed  by  the  two 
great  oceans  of  the  earth.  Its  soil  is  so  fertile 
that,  as  Douglas  Jerrold  said  of  Australia,  “you 
have  but  to  tickle  it  with  a  hoe  and  it  laughs  with 
a  harvest,”  and  so  diversified,  that  every  green 
thing  grows  in  it,  from  the  pines  of  the  north  to 
the  cotton  and  oranges  of  the  south.  Its  bowels 
are  rich  with  every  conceivable  kind  of  mineral 
wealth  —  a  natural  treasure-cave,  awaiting  but  the 
open  sesame  to  disclose  boundless  riches,  beyond 
the  ‘  ‘  Arabian  Nights.  ”  Its  wide  area  is  unified  by 
railroads  and  telegraphic  wires,  which  annihilate 
time  and  distance,  and  make  Boston  and  San 
Francisco  next  door  neighbors.  Best  of  all,  it  is 


22 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


the  laud  of  religion  and  of  education  and  of  free¬ 
dom.  Such  a  country,  such  an  arena  —  .shall  not 
its  citizens  be  as  pure  as  its  breezes,  as  lofty  as  its 
mountains,  and  as  firm  for  righteousness  as  the 
granite  that  underlies  the  continent  ? 

American  citizenship  was  bought  with  a  great 
price.  Those  dreary  years  of  colonial  preparation , 
when  our  forefathers  stood  with  the  cruel  sea 
behind  them  and  the  unbroken  wilderness  in  front 
of  them,  peopled  with  savage  foes,  negledfed  by 
the  mother  country,  on  the  boundary  line  of  civil¬ 
ization — a  line  run  by  the  tomahawk  and  the 
scalping-knife,  were  part  of  the  price.  The 
revolution,  with  Marion  and  Sumter  marching 
and  counter-marching  in  the  south  ;  with  Greene 
and  Gates  manceuvering  in  the  north,  and  with 
Washington  and  his  army  barefooted  amid  the 
snows  of  Valley  Forge,  a  long  and  dubious  and 
deadly  struggle,  pundtuated  by  the  ‘  ‘  embattled 
farmers  at  Concord,  and  by  Bunker  Hill,  and 
Saratoga,  and  Kutaw  Springs,  and  Yorktown,  was 
a  further  instalment.  And,  more  recently,  the 
horrors  of  the  civil  war,  with  its  unprecedented 
sacrifices  of  money  and  men,  and  hallowed  by  the 
martyrdom  of  Ifincoln,  made  the  sum  complete. 
The  citizens  of  the  present  are  called  of  God  to  be 
the  worthy  heirs  of  the  heroes  of  1640,  1776  and 
1861,  and  the  apostles  of  a  grander  future. 


II. 


THE  FEMAEE  CITIZEN . 

It  is  ail  anomaly  in  American  political  life  that 
while  the  Constitution  declares,  as  we  have  seen, 
that  “all  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United 
States,  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are 
citizens  ’  ’ ;  and  that  ‘  ‘  the  right  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or 
abridged  by  the  United  States  or  any  State,” 
the  female  citizen  is  nevertheless  disfranchised. 
She  represents  the  best,  and  brightest,  and  laigest 
half  of  our  citizenship.  But  her  sex  disqualifies 
her  for  the  exercise  of  the  loftiest  and  most  ehai  - 
acteristic  prerogative  of  the  citizen.  She  is  guilt} 
of  being  a  woman!  This  inconsistency  is  a  sin¬ 
gular  compound  of  injustice  and  absurdity. 

The  right,  under  the  Constitution,  of  the  female 
citizen  to  vote  is  as  clear  as  sunlight  —  as  undeni¬ 
able  as  is  the  right  of  the  male  citizen.  The 
reasoning  which  proves  the  right  of  the  one  also 
establishes  the  right  of  the  other.  Confessedly, 
woman  is  as  intelligent  as  man,  and  more  moral. 
Indeed,  she  represents  the  conscience  side  of  life. 

The  franchise  stands  in  special  need  of  re-enforce- 

23 


24 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


ment  on  that  side.  Moreover,  the  female  citizen 
owns  and  manages  estates,  pays  taxes,  sits  in 
the  witness  stand,  and  goes  to  jail  and  the  gal¬ 
lows,  on  occasion.  She  is  subjedt  to  government, 
ought  she  not  to  have  a  voice  in  government? 

‘  ‘  Why  will  you  women  meddle  with  politics  ?  ’ 
asked  Napoleon  of  Madame  de  Stack  “Ah!  sire,” 
was  the  triumphant  answer  of  the  great  French¬ 
woman,  “if  you  will  hang  us,  we  must  ask  the 
reason.  ’  ’  Rights  are  nothing  but  privileges  until 
they  are  provided  with  adequate  defense.  For 
this  reason  the  Constitution  puts  the  ballot  in  the 
hand  of  the  citizen,  and  makes  it  the  palladium 
of  private  and  public  liberty. 

The  truth  is,  that  woman  has  been  excluded 
from  the  franchise  at  the  behest  of  inherited  pre¬ 
judices.  The  pagan  conception  was  that  she  was 
a  mere  adjundl  of  man.  She  was  looked  upon  as 
either  married  or  to  be  married.  In  either  case 
she  was  uuptci  —  hence  our  word  nuptial  that 
is,  veiled.  In  the  Norman-Englisli  law  a  married 
woman  was  termed  femme-covert —  she  was  covered , 
absorbed  by  the  husband.  Medieval  and  modern 
law  have  borrowed  this  conception  from  pagan¬ 
ism.  Woman  has  been  viewed  as  a  mere 
annex.  Man  has  represented  her,  and  abused 
and  fondled  her  by  turns,  and  at  will.  The  whole 
legislation  of  the  world  is  a  commentary  on  this 
theory  —  woman  nothing  ;  man  everything. 


THE  EEMAEE  CITIZEN. 


25 


Whatever  importance  she  possesses  she  gets 
through  him. 

The  woman  of  to-day,  and  especially  the  Amer¬ 
ican  woman,  with  her  enlightened  ideas  and  freer 
habits,  is  naturally  disgusted  by  this  overweening 
male  assumption  and  presumption.  She  an¬ 
nounces  her  purpose  to  voice  her  own  mind  and 
safeguard  her  own  interests.  As  the  means  she 
claims  the  ballot. 

Various  objections  to  this  claim  are  urged. 

It  is  said,  for  instance,  that  the  female  citizen 
should  continue  to  trust  herself  to  the  protection 
of  the  male  citizen.  The  answer  is  that  the 
American  principle  forbids  it,  by  declaring  that 
each  class  shall  take  care  of  itself. 

Moreover,  all  history  is  a  thunderous  declara¬ 
tion  of  the  folly  of  such  a  course,  and  proves  that 
it  is  like  asking  Little  Red  Riding  Hood  to  trust  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  wolf.  I11  Greece,  under 
man’s  protection,  woman  was  a  chattel-personal, 
and  passed  to  the  creditor  with  the  other  house¬ 
hold  effeCts  of  a  bankrupt  father  or  husband.  I11 
Rome  it  was  death  for  her  to  do  what  he  was 
expeCted  to  do  and  applauded  for  doing.  Through 
the  Middle  Ages  she  was  deprived  of  her  dearest 
rights  of  property,  person,  and  motherhood  by 
man-made  laws.  ‘  ‘  There  is  no  instance  on 
record,”  affirms  Buckle,  in  his  “History  of 
Civilization,”  “  of  any  class  possessing  exclusive 


26 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


power  without  abusing  it.  And  John  Stuart 
Mill  asserts  that  ‘  ‘  there  ought  to  be  no  pariahs  in 
a  full-grown  and  civilized  nation  ;  no  persons  dis¬ 
qualified  save  through  their  default.”  He  adds  : 

“  Every  one  is  degraded,  whether  aware  of  it  or 
not,  when  other  people,  without  consulting  him, 
take  upon  themselves  unlimited  power  to  regulate 
his  destiny.”  Would  any  man  be  willing  to  put 
himself  in  the  power  of  any  other  man,  however 
good  or  great  ?  Why  should  woman  be  asked  to 
q0  ^  —  woman,  whose  disabilities  are  emphasized 
by  all  the  attractions  and  temptations  of  sex  ? 

It  is  further  objected  that  the  female  citizen  is 
already  virtually  represented  by  the  male  citizen. 
But  how  ?  Wendell  Phillips  used  to  tell  of  a  man 
in  Massachusetts  who  married  a  girl  who  was 
worth  $50,000.  He  died  shortly  afterwards  and 
left  her  the  $50,000  so  long  as  she  should  remain 
his  widow.  What  a  satisfactory  representative! 
And  what  shall  be  thought  of  a  code  which  makes 
such  an  act  possible  ? 

When  our  ancestors  in  colonial  days  protested 
against  taxation  without  representation,  England 
pleaded  this  same  objection,  that  the  colonies  were 
virtually  represented  in  the  British  parliament. 
The  Patriots  scouted  the  claim  —  asked  how  they 
were  represented,  when  the  choice  of  representa¬ 
tives  was  made,  and  insisted  that  all  just  govern¬ 
ment  rests  upon  the  expressed  consent  of  the  gov- 


THE  EEMAEE  CITIZEN. 


27 


erned.  “No  such  phrase  as  virtual  representation 
is  known  in  law  or  constitution,”  cried  James 
Otis,  with  Faneuil  Hall  for  a  platform,  Boston  for 
a  sounding-board  and  the  world  for  an  audience. 
“It  is  altogether  a  subtlety  and  illusion,  wholly 
unfounded  and  absurd.”  Woman  may  well 
avouch  her  scornful  repudiation  of  this  claim  of 
virtual  representation  by  the  example  of  the  sons 
of  liberty  in  ’76,  and  the  eloquence  of  James 
Otis. 

It  is  gravely  asserted  that  the  ballot  is  not  a 
panacea.  Man  has  it,  but  he  has  not  introduced 
the  millenium  by  means  of  it.  If  woman  imagines 
that  a  vote  will  right  all  her  wrongs,  she  has  but 
to  view  the  political  situation  to-day,  the  idleness, 
the  poverty,  the  misery,  among  men  ;  the  illiter¬ 
acy,  the  grinding  monopoly,  the  municipal  mis¬ 
rule,  despite  the  fadt  that  these  men  are  voters  — 
so  it  is  urged. 

The  reply  is  easy.  And  it  is  that  the  voters 
have  the  remedy  in  their  own  hands.  If  they 
‘  ‘  prefer  darkness  rather  than  light  because  their 
deeds  are  evil,”  such  a  choice  does  not  invalidate 
-the  disused  or  misused  means.  Besides,  if  the 
men  have  made  such  a  sad  mess  of  it,  there  should 
seem  to  be  the  greater  need  to  call  in  the  women 
in  order  to  revitalize  the  flabby  franchise  and  save 
the  state.  Nobody  expedfs  to  vote  in  the  millen¬ 
ium.  That  must  come  in  us  by  regeneration,  and 


28 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


then  out  of  us  and  into  citizenship  and  the  statute 
book.  But  that  same  opportunity  and  advantage 
which  the  ballot  gives  to  one  sex  it  should  give 
to  the  other  —  the  opportunity  of  self-expression, 
and  the  advantage  of  self- protection. 

’Tis  said  that  woman  already  has  influence  ; 
that  a  vote  would  not  increase  it.  The  influence 
of  the  female  citizen  is  unquestionable  ;  but  in 
politics  it  is  hidden  and  un watched.  It  needs  to 
be  sobered  by  a  sense  of  responsibility.  Focque- 
viile,  in  one  of  his  most  remarkable  letters,  as¬ 
cribes  the  treachery  of  some  of  the  most  promis¬ 
ing  leaders  of  the  reform  movements  in  France 
to  this  powerful  backstair  and  boudoir  influence  of 
wives  and  daughters  over  fatheis  and  husbands, 
inducing  them  to  use  their  position  for  personal 
ends  or  family  advancement  rathei  than- in  aid  of 
the  principle  they  had  espoused.  Yes,  cries 
the  famous  publicist  in  ending  his  letter,  ‘ 1  it  is 
the  women  of  France  who  have  wrecked  some  of 
our  noblest  movements  to  help  the  millions.” 

Naturally.  Woman  has  been  trained  to  feel 
that  wealth,  ease,  dress,  social  prestige  are  the 
ends  of  life.  Why  should  she  not  prize  them  ? 
She  has  been  shut  out  from  knowledge  of  and  par¬ 
ticipation  in  large  questions  which  touch  the 
common  weal  :  why  should  she  not  be  politically 
ignorant  ?  She  has  lived  and  moved  and  had  her 
being  in  a  world  of  dolls  :  why  should  she  not  be 


THE  EEMAEE  CITIZEN. 


29 


petty  ?  She  has  been  taught  to  pose  rather  than 
to  think  :  why  should  she  not  be  artificial  ?  She 
has  been  shut  up  like  a  pet  canary,  in  a  gilded  cage, 
and  fed  on  the  lump-sugar  of  compliment :  why 
should  she  not  be  vain  ?  She  has  been  trained  to 
look  upon  a  new  bonnet  as  vastly  more  important 
than  a  new  truth  :  why  should  she  not  be  frivo¬ 
lous  ?  If  an  exceptional  woman  cares  little  for 
society,  and  thinks  or  writes,  she  is  nicknamed  a 
“blue-stocking.”  If  she  can  neither  think  nor 
write,  but  devotes  herself  to  dress,  and  dates 
time  from  ball  to  ball,  she  is  sneered  at  as  a 
dudine. 

The  influence  of  woman,  which  is  so  potent  that 
it  makes  or  mars  man,  and  ruins  when  it  might 
save,  should  be  directed  to  wide  ends,  and  be 
made  to  feel  and  prepare  for  its  responsibility. 
Responsibility  without  power  is  outrageous.  Pow¬ 
er  without  responsibility  is  equally  abhorrent. 

The  right  to  vote  implies  the  right  to  hold  of¬ 
fice.  This  is  a  reason  which  is  sometimes  given 
for  opposing  female  suffrage.  Certainly,  woman 
as  an  office-holder  is  no  novelty.  Did  not  Queen 
Elizabeth  hold  a  political  office  ?  And  has  not 
Queen  Victoria  given  her  name  to  her  age  ?  Ma¬ 
rie  Therese  was  a  great  politician  and  a  great 
ruler.  Catherine,  of  Russia,  put  her  stamp  upon 
the  empire  of  the  North  as  ineffaceably  as  did 
Peter  the  Great  ?  Even  in  Asia,  Semiramis  was 


30 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


the  acknowledged  peer  of  any  crowned  head  of 
any  age  —  her  figure  looms  colossal  after  thirty 
centuries.  And  in  Greece,  Aspasia  was  the  inti¬ 
mate  counselor  of  the  greatest  statesman  Athens 
ever  knew. 

Certain  fearful  critics  are  sure  that  if  woman  had 
the  ballot  she  would  leave  the  stockings  undarned 
and  the  cradle  unrocked,  desert  her  home,  and  do 
nothing  but  run  for  office  day  and  night  and  night  . 
and  day.  This  is  not  saying  much  for  the  attract¬ 
iveness  of  her  home.  If  man  made  ii  pleasanter 
for  her,  and  himself  frequented  it  more,  perhaps 
she  would  not  be  so  ready  to  leave  it!  Men  \  ote. 
Do  they  neglect  their  homes  ?  Or  if  they  do,  is 
it  for  that  reason  ?  The  sailor,  the  mechanic,  the 
merchant,  the  manufacturer,  whose  factories  cover 
a  township,  the  railroad  magnate,  whose  system 
cobwebs  the  continent  —  all  find  time  to  vote  with¬ 
out  negledting  their  affairs.  Would  it  be  quite 
impossible  for  a  housewife  to  leave  her  kitchen 
long  enough  to  drop  a  ballot  without  overbaking 
the  bread  in  the  oven  ?  A  bright  woman  of  large 
means  expressed  a  wish  to  vote.  ‘  ‘  Why,  madam,  ’ 
exclaimed  a  friend,  ‘ ‘  who  would  take  care  of  your 
baby  when  you  went  to  the  polls  ?  ’  ’  Her  quick 
reply  was  ;  1 1  The  same  pel. son  who  takes  caie  of 
him  now  when  I  go  to  pay  my  taxes  !  ’  ’ 

A  much  more  serious  objection  to  female  suf¬ 
frage  is  this,  that  the  vote  rests  in  the  last  analy- 


THE  EEMAEE  CITIZEN. 


31 


si.s  upon  force,  and  that  it  therefore  presupposes 
military  duty  in  case  of  need. 

The  inferior  position  held  by  woman  through 
the  ages  has  been  due  to  her  inferior  physical 
prowess.  The  past  was  dominated  by  brute  force. 
A  man’s  only  safety  lay  in  the  strength  of  his 
arm  and  the  sharpness  of  his  sword.  By  and  by 
civil  society  was  evolved.  Protection  was  rele¬ 
gated  to  the  courts  ;  and  armies  were  only  mustered 
when  the  courts  were  set  at  naught.  Every  suc¬ 
ceeding  age  made  brute  force  worth  less  and  brain 
worth  more.  Eventually  ballots  will  supersede 
bullets.  Character  and  conscience  will  be  domi¬ 
nant.  This  time  is  not  yet.  Meantime  woman 
is  far  from  being  useless,  even  in  war.  She  makes 
it  possible  for  her  husband  and  son  to  enlist  by 
assuming  burdens  laid  on  her  by  their  absence. 
She  supervises  sanitary  matters  in  camp.  Who 
walks  the  wards  of  the  hospital  ?  Woman.  Did 
not  Florence  Nightingale  illustrate  the  Crimean 
war  equally  with  the  Hotspurs  who  charged  at 
Balaclava?  Was  not  the  work  of  Clara  Barton, 
in  our  civil  war,  as  vital  as  that  of  any  general  in 
the  field  ?  .  It  is  history  that  the  Confederacy  was 
long  sustained  by  the  heroism  and  sacrifices  of 
the  Southern  women. 

A  distinguished  thinker  emphasizes  the  truth 
that  military  service  does  not  consist  in  fighting 
alone.  Whatever  sustains  and  repairs  the  physi- 


32 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


cal  force  enlisted  is  as  essential  as  the  force  itself. 
Thus,  in  view  of  the  moral  service  they  render, 
the  law  excuses  clergymen  from  the  field.  In 
active  service  ten  percent,  of  the  army  is  detailed 
to  serve  the  other  ninety  per  cent,  in  various 
capacities  about  the  camp.  We  recognize  moral 
service  as  of  equal  value  with  physical  even  in 
war.  Brute  force  must  be  fed,  clothed,  housed, 
nursed,  cheered,  and  this  is  the  peculiar  sphere  of 
woman  —  has  ever  been,  must  ever  be.  Until  we 
deny  all  this,  and  disfranchise  clergymen  and 
soldiers  occupied  in  camp  duty,  because  they  do 
not  shoulder  a  musket,  we  cannot  consistently 
deny  the  franchise  to  female  citizens  on  that 
ground. 

Some  women  can  and  do  actually  fight.  Ask 
their  husbands  ! 

A  bug-a-boo  objection  to  female  suffrage  which 
formerly  had  far  more  terror  than  it  has  now,  is 
that  it  is  unwomanly  to  vote.  It  takes  woman  from 
her  “sphere.’'  It  is  laughable,  this  masculine 
assumption  to  tell  woman  what  is  womanly.  How 
considerate  it  is  in  the  average  man  to  map  down 
the  orbit  and  designate  the  ‘  ‘  sphere  ’  ’  of  the 
Martineaus  and  the  De  Staels,  of  Lady  Somerset 
and  Frances  Willard.  The  test  of  .sphere  is  suc¬ 
cess.  Whatever  God  made  man  and  woman  able 
to  do  well,  He  meant  them  to  do  ;  since  He  ex¬ 
plicitly  forbids  us  to  wrap  up  our  talents  in  a  nap- 


THE  FEMALE  CITIZEN. 


33 


kin.  If  millions  of  women  can  successfully 
engage  in  business,  this  proves  that  they  were 
meant  for  business.  If  they  can  cure  diseases, 
they  are  fitted  for  medicine.  If  Harriet  Hosmer 
can  carve  statues,  God  intended  her  to  keep  com¬ 
pany  with  Angelo  and  Canova.  If  Maria  Mitchell 
can  read  the  stars,  God  created  her  to  take  her 
place  beside  Copernicus.  If  Lucretia  Mott  can 
edify  a  Quaker  meeting,  God  touched  her  lips  for 
exhortation.  If  Patti  can  rival  the  angels  in 
song,  God  commissioned  her  to  sing.  Woman’s 
sphere  is  not  to  be  settled  by  man’s  ideas,  or  by 
antiquated  conventionalities,  but  by  her  own  gifts 
and  desires. 

Unwomanly  to  vote?  Why  is  it  any  more  un¬ 
womanly  to  vote  than  it  is  to  sing  in  public,  or  to 
adt  on  the  .stage?  Yet  woman  does  these  things 
unrebuked.  Nay,  many  people  pay  a  high  price 
for  seats  to  hear  the  singer  or  see  the  adlress, 
who  are  horrified  at  the  thought  of  listening  to  a 
female  citizen  speak  on  the  platform,  or  permit¬ 
ting  her  to  vote  at  an  eledtion.  Indelicate  for 
woman  to  go  to  the  polls  ?  Who  would  she  see 
there  ?  Men  !  Well,  she  sees  them  now,  occa¬ 
sionally.  Walk  up  and  down  the  streets  ;  there 
are  as  many  women  as  men  afoot.  Enter  a  place 
of  amusement  ;  the  sexes  are  seated  side  by  side. 
Get  into  a  street  car  ;  the  belle  and  beau  are  again 
side  by  side.  Even  in  church,  woman  faces  male 


34 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


saints  and  sinners  at  every  turn.  Those  who 
esteem  it  unwomanly  to  vote  belong  to  the  century 
of  Tamerlane  and  Timour  the  Tartar,  or  to  China, 
where  woman's  feet  are  distorted  so  that  she  can¬ 
not  stray  out  of  her  “  sphere.” 

Many  women  stoutly  insist  that  they  do  not 
want  to  vote.  Then  they  need  not  go  to  the  polls. 
Some  do  desire  to  vote.  The  indifference  of  some 
should  not  abridge  the  right  of  even  one.  We  are 
not  to  withhold  from  the  female  citizen  the  most 
precious  and  essential  prerogative  of  citizenship 
until  she  demands  it.  “  When  natural  rights,  or 
the  means  of  their  defense,  have  been  immemori- 
ally  denied  to  a  whole  sex,”  remarks  Geo.  Wm. 
Curtis,  “when  this  sex  has  been  immemorially 
taught  that  it  would  be  indelicate  to  claim  or  ex¬ 
ercise  these  rights,  does  justice  or  good  sense  re¬ 
quire  that  they  should  be  called  upon  to  vote  upon 
their  own  elevation  to  perfect  citizenship?  It 
might  as  well  be  said  that  Jack ,  the  Giant-Killer , 
ought  to  have  gravely  asked  the  captives  in  the 
ogre’s  dungeon  whether  they  wished  to  be  free. 
It  must  be  assumed  that  women  as  well  as  men 
wish  to  enjoy  their  natural  rights  —  as  we  assume 
that  the  lungs  wish  air  and  the  eyes  crave  light. 
Did  the  government  wait  until  the  slaves  peti¬ 
tioned  for  freedom  before  emancipating  them? 
Or,  when,  in  the  State,  thousands  of  boys  reach 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  are  they  required  to  assure 


the  female  citizen. 


35 


the  register  that  the}"  wish  to  vote  before  being 
allowed  to  take  the  oath  ?  ’  ’  When  a  number  of 
lads  are  met  on  the  streets,  is  it  customary  to  say 
to  them  :  “  You  poor  little  ignoramuses,  would 

you  like  a  free  school  system  ?  ’  ’  The  State  estab¬ 
lished  schools  before  dunces  asked  for  them. 

Women  must  be  taught  to  want  the  ballot  — 
precisely  as  they  have  been  taught  not  to  want  it. 
Their  stake  in  the  commonwealth  is  as  great  as 
man’s.  The  evils  which  afflidt  the  body  politic 
one  sex  is  as  much  interested  in  remedying  as  the 
other  is  —  for  they  bear  upon  the  female  more 
sharply  than  on  the  male.  It  has  been  aptly  said 
that  ‘  ‘  we  lose  half  our  resources  when  we  shut 
citizens  of  the  female  sex  out  from  the  influences 
which  minister  to  civic  growth  and  health.  God 
gives  us  the  entire  race,  with  its  varied  endow¬ 
ments,  equal  yet  different,  man  and  woman  ;  one 
the  complement  of  the  other,  on  which  to  base 
civilization.  We  mutilate  ourselves  by  using,  in 
civil  affairs,  only  half  the  race  —  only  one  sex.” 

True,  woman  at  the  ballot-box  is  an  innovation. 
But  then  all  history,  and  daily  life,  are  made  up  of 
innovations.  Progress  is  a  splendid  panorama  of 
innovations.  The  Pope  pronounced  the  right  of 
private  judgment  in  religion  a  heretical  innova¬ 
tion.  The  downfall  of  feudalism  was  an  innova¬ 
tion.  George  III.  was  confident  that  the  freedom 
of  the  press  was  a  dangerous  innovation  ;  and  that 


36 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


the  claims  of  James  Otis,  Sam  Adams  and  the 
sons  of  liberty  were  treasonable  innovations. 
Aristocratic  Europe  sneered  that  manhood  suf¬ 
frage  was  a  heaven-defying  innovation.  When 
vSir  Samuel  Romilly  proposed  to  abolish  the  death 
penalty  for  stealing  a  lady’s  handkerchief,  the  law 
officers  of  the  crown  contended  that  it  would  up¬ 
set  the  whole  criminal  code  of  England.  On  the 
passage  of  the  bill  abolishing  the  slave  trade,  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  Lord  St.  Vincent  rose  and 
stalked  out  of  the  chamber,  declaring  that  he 
washed  his  hands  cf  the  ruin  of  the  British  Em¬ 
pire.  Co-education  is  an  innovation.  Female 
writers  and  readers  are  an  innovation  —  the  clas¬ 
sics  knew  nothing  of  such  “  monstrosities  which 
explains  why  they  are  so  indecent.  Every  new 
invention  is  an  innovation  —  the  .steamship,  the 
railroad,  the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  X-ray, 
the  typewriter  and  the  bicycle.  Yet  the  world 
stands.  Nay,  life  is  broader,  sweeter,  wiser,  hap¬ 
pier  than  in  those  ‘  ‘  good  old  days  ’ '  of  which 
poets  sing,  but  are  glad  they  did  not  live  in. 
America  was  clearly  intended  to  be  a  disturber  of 
somnolent  traditions,  and  to  leave  nobler  prece¬ 
dents  than  she  found. 

However  desirable  the  presence  of  the  female 
citizen  may  be  in  the  civic  arena,  it  is  solemnly 
asserted  that  the  Bible  forbids  her  to  enter  it.  It 
is  contended  that  there  are  no  scriptural  prece- 


THE  FEMALE  CITIZEN. 


37 


dents  ;  no  ecclesiastical  legislation  in  that  direc¬ 
tion  ;  or,  if  there  is  any,  it  is  prohibitory.  This 
is  a  grave  charge.  If  it  were  true  it  would  be 
embarrassing,  distressing,  fatal  to  all  believers  in 
Holy  Writ.  Is  it  true  ?  Let  us  see. 

Are  there  not  the  same  scriptural  warrants  for 
this  change  that  there  are  for  other  changes  in 
other  directions?  The  Bible  is  a  comparatively 
small  volume.  It  were  absurd  to  expeCt  to  find 
in  it  explicit  injunctions  covering  the  multitudi¬ 
nous  and  multifarious  life  of  all  the  ages.  No 
more  can  be  looked  for  than  a  simple  enunciation 
of  comprehensive  principles,  with  illustrative  ex¬ 
amples.  These,  when  discovered,  are  in  the 
nature  of  positive  legislation.  There  is  no  direCt 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  New  Testament. 
Nevertheless,  the  whole  genius  of  the  Gospel  is 
against  it  ;  and  just  as  far  and  just  as  fast  as  the 
Gospel  has  prevailed,  slavery  has  been  abolished. 
The  New  Testament  nowhere  commands  the 
replacing  of  the  Hebrew  Sabbath  by  the  Lord's 
Day.  Yet  the  praCtice  of  the  Apostles,  and  of 
the  primitive  church,  suffices  to  convince  Christ¬ 
endom  that  the  substitution  is  Biblical. 

Precisely  .so  with  regard  to  the  larger  life  and 
public  position  of  woman  to-day.  St.  Paul  him¬ 
self  —  who  is  always  quoted  as  on  the  other  side 
of  this  question — enunciates  a  principle  which 
amounts  to  an  enactment.  In  the  Bpistle  to  the 


38 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


Galatians  —  iii  :  18  —  he  says:  “  There  is  neither 
Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free, 
there  is  neither  male  nor  female;  for  ye  are  all  one 
in  Christ  Jesus.  ”  Here,  for  ethical  and  spiritual 
purposes,  he  strikes  out  of  the  dictionary  the 
words  barbarian,  slave,  and  woman.  With  regard 
to  woman,  the  sexual  relation  stands  on  the  phy¬ 
sical  side,  of  course  ;  but  on  the  moral  side  it  is 
abolished.  Woman  is  “  one  ”  with  man. 

Such  is  the  principle.  What  was  the  illustra¬ 
tive  praCtiee  ?  In  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corin¬ 
thians —  xi  :  4,  5  —  St.  Paul  says  :  “  Every  man 
praying  or  prophesying  with  his  head  covered 
dishonoreth  his  head.  But  every  woman  that 
prayeth  or  prophesieth  with  her  head  uncovered 
dishonoreth  her  head.”  Here  is  a  plain  casein 
point.  Woman  might  pray  or  prophesy  in  pub¬ 
lic.  Her  right  to  do  so  is  recognized.  Only  with 
woman,  as  with  man,  there  is  a  regulation  of  the 
right.  The  woman  must  exercise  her  right  with 
her  head  covered  ;  the  man  with  his  head  uncov¬ 
ered.  Why  ?  Because  the  social  liabit  and  cus¬ 
tom  of  that  age  and  country  made  those  respective 
postures  seemly  and  worshipful.  The  mandate 
was  based  on  social  rather  than  moral  reasons. 
The  Apostle  wished  to  have  believers,  unpopular 
enough  at  best,  avoid  unnecessary  scandal.  But, 
incontrovertibly,  there  must  have  been  a  large 
exercise  by  woman  of  her  right  to  pray  and  pro- 


THE  FEMALE  CITIZEN. 


39 


phesy  in  public,  in  order  to  call  for  this  regulation 
of  it. 

What  was  this  gift  of  prophecy  which  woman 
might  exercise  in  the  prescribed  manner  ?  It  was 
the  second  office  in  importance  in  the  Christian 
Church.  In  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians 
St.  Paul  says  —  xii  :  28  —  “And  God  hath  set  some 
in  the  church,  first  apostles,  secondarily  prophets, 
thirdly  teachers,  ’  ’  etc.  Elsewhere  —  viz. ,  in  1  Co¬ 
rinthians,  xiv  :  1  —  he  puts  prophecy  first  among 
spiritual  gifts.  Now,  the  prophet  was  one  whose 
function  it  was  to  unfold  the  counsels  of  God  to 
men  as  contained  in  the  way  of  salvation  through 
Christ  —  see  Acts  xiii  :  1,  2.  This  necessitated 
publicity;  for  how  could  the  counsels  of  God  be 
unfolded  unless  men  were  addressed  ? 

Accordingly,  we  find  the  prophetesses  of  the 
Old  Testament  exercising  their  gift  in  public. 
Deborah  was  a  judge.  Pray,  how  could  a  judge 
act  officially  in  private?  The  very  office  com¬ 
pels  publicity.  Like  a  judge  in  our  time,  Debo¬ 
rah  subpoenaed  this  and  that  man  to  appear  before 
her.  Even  Barak  sat  at  her  feet.  More  than 
this.  She  left  home  and  went  away  to  camp  with 
that  rough  soldier.  In  the  book  of  Judges  we 
read —  iv  :  9,  10 —  “And  Deborah  arose  and  went 
with  Barak  to  Kedesh.”  So,  if  we  turn  back  to 
Exodus  —  xv  —  we  find,  first,  an  account  of  the 
Song  of  Moses,  public  and  formal;  and  then,  fol- 


40 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


lowing  it,  the  Song  of  Miriam,  apparently  equally 
public  and  formal. 

St.  Paul’s  injunction  that  “  women  keep  silence 
in  the  churches ” — i  Corinthians,  xiv:  34  —  is  cited 
as  settling  the  question  of  female  participation  in 
public  religious  services.  Well,  if  this  is  the 
meaning  of  the  passage,  it  is  not  now,  and  has 
never  been,  observed.  I11  the  Episcopal  churches 
women  join  with  men  in  the  responses.  Is  this 
keeping  silence  ?  In  all  the  churches  women  sing 
in  the  choirs.  Is  this  keeping  silence  ?  If  that 
injunction  means  what  it  is  claimed  to  mean,  then 
it  must  be  obeyed  literally  —  not  broken  in  the 
matter  of  the  public  responses  and  sacred  songs, 
and  kept  only  in  prayer  and  exhortation.  The 
better  view  is  that  this  was  a  local  direction,  in¬ 
tended  to  restrain  incompetent  women  from  public 
religious  chatter,  involving  false  doctrine  and 
scandal  ;  and  not  a  command  binding  upon  a 
whole  sex  through  all  time.  Scripture  is  to  be  in¬ 
terpreted  in  harmony  with  Scripture.  This  inter¬ 
pretation  harmonizes  this  passage  with  those  other 
passages  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  which 
teach  the  doctrine  held  and  practised  in  our  day. 

’Tis  said  that  woman  loses  her  modesty  in  pub¬ 
lic  life.  This  is  not  to  be  settled  by  opinion  but  Dy 
the  fadts.  Are  there  any  women  more  austerely 
modest  than  the  Quaker  women  ?  Yet  among  the 
Friends  the  majority  of  the  preachers  are  women. 


THE  FEMALE  CITIZEN. 


41 


Ill  the  prayer  meetings  of  the  two  more  numer¬ 
ous  of  the  Protestant  denominations,  the  Metho¬ 
dists  and  the  Baptists,  the  women  have  long  taken 
part.  Are  these  godly  women  immodest  ?  Among 
the  young  people  of  the  Christian  Endeavor  Soci- 
ties,  the  Epworth  Eeagues  and  the  Baptist  Unions, 
women  take  their  turn  with  men  in  leading  the 
meetings  ;  and  their  pledge  obliges  them  to  take 
some  part  other  than  in  song.  Are  they  im¬ 
modest  ? 

Now,  if  in  the  scriptural  interpretation  and  prac¬ 
tise  of  this  age  and  land,  women  may  and  do  par¬ 
ticipate  in  religious  services,  is  it  not  rather  late  to 
affirm  that  the  Bible  excludes  them  from  voting  ? 
If  they  are  orthodox  in  praying  and  exhorting, 
they  will  be  equally  orthodox  at  the  primary  and 
ballot-box. 

The  right  of  the  female  citizen  to  the  elective 
franchise  in  the  United  States  is  beyond  contro¬ 
versy.  Presently  she  will  assume  and  exercise 
this  right.  She  is  sadly  needed  in  politics.  Her 
presence  will  do  there  what  it  has  already  done  in 
religion,  education,  literature,  and  business — - 
sweeten  and  purify  the  springs  of  American  sov¬ 
ereignty.  God  made  man  and  woman  to  go 
together  and  stay  together  ;  in  the  family,  and 
also  in  the  church  and  in  the  State.  And  it  is 
Jesus  himself  who  says  :  “  What  therefore  God 

hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder.”  2 


42 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


Her  enfranchisement  would  result  in  Words¬ 
worth’s  ideal : — • 

“A  creature  not  too  bright  or  good 
For  human  nature’s  daily  food  — 

For  transient  sorrows,  simple  wiles, 

Praise,  blame,  love,  kisses,  tears  and  smiles  : 
A  perfedt  woman,  nobly  planned, 

To  warn,  to  comfort  and  command  ; 

And  yet  a  .spirit  still,  and  bright 
With  something  of  an  angel  light.” 


PART  II. 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


I. 


WHY  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  ? 

Some  objeCt  to  the  adjective  Christian  in  con¬ 
nection  with  citizenship,  as  though  there  were 
hidden  in  it  a  menace  of  union  between  Church 
and  State  —  that  incestuous  wedlock  in  which 
have  been  begotten  the  worst  crimes  that  have  be¬ 
deviled  history.  Others  consider  that  good  citizen¬ 
ship  is  a  preferable  expression,  because  the  prefix 
Christian  gives  a  common  prerogative  a  sectarian 
aspedt.  If  either  of  these  objections  were  valid, 
it  would  be  fatal.  Americans  do  not  believe  in  a 
union  of  Church  and  State,  and  are  justly  sus¬ 
picious  of  any  projeCt  which  even  squints  towards 
it.  Nor  would  they  consent  to  narrow  citizenship 
into  sectarianism. 

While  sharing  these  views,  we  nevertheless 
plead  for  Christian  citizenship.  The  adjeCtive 
does  not  mask  any  purpose  to  perform  a  midnight 
marriage  between  Church  and  State.  Nor  is  it 
conceded  that  the  term  good  is  preferable  to  Chris¬ 
tian  as  a  distinguisher  of  the  best  type  of  citizen¬ 
ship.  Good  is  relative,  Christian  is  positive. 
Good  needs  an  interpretation.  Christian  is  self- 

45 


46 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


explanatory.  Good  is  a  chameleon,  taking  color 
from  environment.  Christian  looks  and  .speaks 
and  adts  alike,  always  and  everywhere  —  the 
word,  that  is,  not  the  individual  who  assumes  it. 
A  jockey,  a  gambler,  a  libertine,  maybe  “  a  good 
fellow  ’  ’  in  the  parlance  of  his  cronies,  and  is 
often  called  so.  Bvery  retailer  of  liquor  must  be 
endorsed  as  good  before  he  can  secure  a  license  to 
sell  his  liquid  damnation.  Could  Christian  be 
prostituted  to  such  uses  ? 

This  aside,  a  man  may  be  a  really  good  father,  a 
good  husband,  a  good  friend,  a  good  neighbor,  a 
good  merchant,  without  being  a  Christian.  So 
may  he  be  a  really  good  citizen  without  being  a 
Christian.  But  we  cherish  ideals  which  are  dis¬ 
tinctively  and  aggressively  Christian.  As  a 
father,  or  husband,  or  friend,  or  neighbor,  or 
merchant  is  idealized  by  filling  these  relations  in 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  so  a  citizen  is  perfected  by  ani¬ 
mating  his  citizenship  with  Christian  motives  and 
purposes.  Why  choose  a  lower  adjedtive  when 
the  highest  may  be  had  ? 

America  needs  not  only  righteousness,  but  that 
form  of  righteousness  which  is  Christian.  The 
golden  rule  should  be  the  working  rule  of  politics. 
The  hopes  of  the  founders  of  empire  in  this  west¬ 
ern  world  are  to  be  realized.  The  continent 
belongs  to  Christ  by  discovery.  When  Columbus 
lifted  the  veil  of  waters  from  the  sleeping  face  of 


WHY  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  ? 


47 


the  virgin  hemisphere,  he  did  it  as  an  adlof  faith. 
When  the  Pilgrims  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock, 
they  marked  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  the  December 
snow.  When  the  Catholics  pre-empted  Maryland, 
they,  too,  stamped  the  symbol  of  religion  on  the 
soil.  God  himself  has  claimed  the  continent. 
Among  the  Rockies  looms  a  giant  called  the 
‘  ‘  Mountain  of  the  Holy  Cross  ;  ’  ’  and  so  named 
because  two  immense  fissures,  one  perpendicular, 
the  other  horizontal,  both  filled  with  snow,  form 
a  natural  cross,  as  tho  the  Almighty  held  it  up  in 
token  of  eternal  ownership. 

Our  country  was  cradled  in  prayer.  It  was 
baptized  in  faith.  Our  colonial  period  passed 
under  Christian  guidance.  The  national  era 
opened  with  the  benediction  of  Christian  sages, 
such  as  Washington,  and  Jay,  and  Henry.  Chief 
Justice  Marshall,  Daniel  Webster,  and  our  earlier 
jurists,  claimed,  without  dispute,  that  the  Repub¬ 
lic  was  Christian  in  its  fundamental  law.  And 
Christianity  has  advertised  itself  in  the  homes, 
the  habits,  the  expressions,  the  institutions,  the 
jurisprudence,  the  very  character  of  the  American 
people.  In  recent  years,  and  as  the  result  of 
imported,  alien  influences,  America  has  been 
measurably  un-Christianized,  so  that  it  needs  to 
be  evangelized  anew.  But  in  the  very  patrimony 
of  Jesus  Christ  shall  we  be  ashamed  or  afraid  to 
.speak  of  Christian  citizenship  ? 


48 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


The  perils  which  now  confront  the  nation  are 
precisely  those  which  should  be  met,  and  can  only 
be  successfully  met,  by  citizens  who  possess,  and 
are  possessed  by,  the  spirit  of  Christ.  Our  Bible, 
the  magna  charta  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
has  been  already  driven  out  of  the  public  schools, 
and  is  assailed  in  its  place  in  the  courts  of  law. 
Our  Sabbath  is  widely  profaned  and  notoriously 
secularized.  In  Mohammedan  lands  the  Moslem 
says  :  ‘  ‘  Great  is  Allah  ;  and  Mohammed  is  his 

prophet.”  In  American  communities  the  politi¬ 
cians  shout  :  ‘  ‘  Great  is  the  Boodler  ;  and  Boodle 
is  his  profit”— and  believe  it,  too.  Tricksters 
are  plotting  night  and  day,  across  the  continent, 
to  juggle  our  Christian  form  of  government  i  nto  a 
corrupt,  heathenish  satrapy,  ruled  by  the  organ¬ 
ized  and  allied  vices,  whose  headquarters  are  in 
the  grog  shops,  whose  houns  are  the  tenants  of 
Cyprian  chambers,  and  whose  tax-colledtors  are 
the  proprietors  of  gambling  dens.  The  citizen¬ 
ship  which  grapples  with  ignorance  and  drunken¬ 
ness,  with  harlotry  and  faro-banking,  with  “  bos¬ 
ses”  and  boodlers,  with  political  selfishness  and 
moral  obliquity,  with  anarchy  and  atheism,  must 
be  more  than  good — it  must  be  avowedly  and 
actively  Ch  ristia n . 

Lovers  of  their  country  rejoice  in  the  present 
revival  of  Christian  patriotism.  It  may  well  be 
hailed  as  the  most  hopeful  sign  of  the  times  that 


WHY  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  ? 


49 


preoccupation  and  indifference  have  been  quick¬ 
ened  into  conscious  political  responsibility  and 
conscientious  interest;  and  that  Christian  young 
men,  who  now  vote,  and  Christian  young  women 
who  will  soon  vote,  are  taking  an  intelligent  and 
aggressive  part  in  public  affairs. 

We  exhort  the  gathering  clans  of  righteousness 
to  acquit  themselves  as  Christian  citizens  are  bound 
to  do.  Let  them  arm  themselves  with  the  same 
puissant  influence  which  has  entered  commerce 
and  made  it  an  agent  of  Jesus  Christ;  which  has 
gone  into  literature  and  purged  it  of  its  old  inde¬ 
cencies;  which  has  directed  the  chisel  of  the 
sculptor,  and  made  the  white  marble  embody  a 
whiter  conception;  which  has  mixed  the  colors  on 
the  palette,  endowed  the  canvas  with  perpetual 
power  to  refine  and  elevate,  and  made  Titian  and 
Murillo  and  Raphael  evangelists  of  art;  and  which 
has  dictated  free  constitutions  to  despotic  govern¬ 
ments,  and  marshalled  the  jubilant  forces  of  legis¬ 
lation  on  behalf  of  liberty  and  man. 

Inspired  by  these  examples,  Christian  citizens 
should  lift  the  cross  above  the  ballot-box,  and  by 
this  .sign  conquer. 


IT. 


POWER  AND  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  CHRISTIAN 

VOTERS. 

Responsibility  is  measured  by  power.  Has 
American  Christianity  the  means  at  its  command 
to  conquer  the  many-headed,  many-handed,  arro¬ 
gant  iniquity  which  confronts  it  and  challenges  it 
to  battle?  Wrapped  up  in  this  question  is  the 
hope  of  the  patriot,  the  future  life  of  the  republic. 
“What  king,”  asks  Jesus,  “  going  to  make  war 
against  another  king,  sitteth  not  down  first,  and 
consulteth  whether  he  be  able  ?  ”  It  behooves 
Christian  citizens  carefully  to  inspect  their  camp 
and  review  their  forces.  True,  we  have  God  on 
our  side,  and  one  with  God  is  a  majority.  The 
hiding  of  our  strength  is  in  Him :  ‘  ‘  Not  by  might, 
nor  by  power,  but  by  my  spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of 
Hosts.”  Yet  God  works  through  human  instru¬ 
mentality.  What  He  has  given  us  the  ability  to 
do  for  ourselves  He  will  not  do  for  us.  Hence  the 
question  recurs:  Have  we  the  power?  If  we 
have  not,  we  can  push  off  the  responsibility  upon 
God.  If  we  have,  we  must  bear  it,  in  reliance  on 
His  cooperation. 

The  most  wonderful  romance  of  modern  times 


50 


POWER  AND  RESPONSIBILITY. 


51 


is  the  last  census  of  the  United  States.  And  its 
most  striking  chapter  is  that  which  records  the 
religious  statistics  of  the  country.  Study  these 
in  the  light  of  a  series  of  contrasts. 

In  1783  Great  Britain  acknowledged  the  inde¬ 
pendence  of  the  United  States,  and  ceded  to  the 
infant  republic  815,615  .square  miles  —  a  territory 
which  stretched  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Missis¬ 
sippi  ;  although  our  population  of  3,000,000,  in 
the  words  of  the  historian,  actually  “  inhabited  a 
narrow  track  of  towns  and  hamlets  extending, 
with  many  breaks,  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  while 
50  miles  back  from  the  shore  line  the  country  was 
an  unbroken  jungle.”  In  1890  our  flag  covered 
3,553,609  square  miles  ;  forming,  according  to 
Mr.  Gladstone,  ‘  ‘  a  natural  basis  for  the  greatest 
continuous  empire  ever  established  by  man.” 
When  the  Louisiana  purchase  was  made  of  Napo¬ 
leon  in  1803,  Robert  Livingston  told  the  French 
emperor  that  ‘  ‘  we  would  not  send  a  settler 
across  the  Mississippi  for  100  years.”  The  cen¬ 
tury  is  still  running,  and  so  is  the  center  of  popu¬ 
lation,  which  is  now  on  the  border  of  the  Father 
of  Waters. 

The  house  of  prayer  was  here  earlier  than  the 
court  of  law  ;  the  clergyman  sooner  than  the 
magistrate  ;  the  colporteur  before  the  constable. 
And  this  precedency  has  far  outstripped  the  growth 
of  the  country.  Since  1800  population  has  in- 


52 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


creased,  twelve-fold  ;  evangelical  cliurcli  member¬ 
ship  has  increased  thirty-nine  fold.  Since  1850, 
population  has  increased  116  per  cent.  ;  Protes¬ 
tantism,  185  per  cent.;  Protestant  churches,  125 
per  cent.;  Protestant  ministers,  173  per  cent. 
Since  the  century  began,  Roman  Catholics  have 
risen  from  100,000,  to  6,257,871  in  1890.  Since 
1850,  the  increase  of  Romanism  has  been  294  per 
cent.;  of  Romish  churches,  447  per  cent.;  and  of 
priests,  391  per  cent. — the  result  of  wholesale  im¬ 
migration.  3  The  last  census  returns  a  total  church 
membership  of  20,612,806,  in  a  total  population 
of  62,622,250!  Stupendous  as  these  figures  are, 
they  do  not  disclose  the  whole  truth.  For  there 
were  15,000,000  in  1890  under  10  years  of  age. 
Deduct  these  from  63,000,000  (in  round  numbers) 
and  the  remainder  is  48,000,000.  Communicants 
are  above  the  age  of  ten  ;  and  hence  the  church 
membership  must  embrace  over  40  per  cent,  of 
the  population.  Nor  is  this  all.  In  order  to 
estimate  the  numerical  sovereignty  of  religion, 
with  a  view  to  the  discovery  of  those  who  are 
with  but  not  of  Israel,  who  attend  divine  services, 
and  constitute  the  parishes,  it  is  customary  to 
multiply  the  communicants  by  2 ,  2  ^2 ,  or  even  3 
—  as  is  the  Methodist  method.  Adopt  the  lowest 
multiple.  Twice  20,612,806  is  41,225,612;  which 
is  the  numerical  power  of  Christianity  in  the 
United  States,  in  a  total  population  of  48,000,000 


POWER  AND  RESPONSIBILITY. 


53 


over  ten  years  old .  It  is  withiii  the  truth  to 
say  that  there  are  not  more  than  5,000,000  people 
in  the  nation  who  have  no  connection,  direct  or 
indirect, with  any  church.  I11  other  words,  almost 
every  other  person  above  the  age  of  ten  is  a  com¬ 
municant,  while  seven-eights  of  the  people  are  in 
touch  and  sympathy  with  one  or  another  form  of 
Christian  ritual.  This  is  unprecedented.  It  shows 
that  among  us  every  day  is  a  day  of  Pentecost.4 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  there  were 
365,000  evangelical  church  members.  In  1890 
there  were  nearly  14,000,000.  It  is  impossible  to 
estimate  the  wealth  of  those  pioneers  of  faith. 
But  we  know  that  their  successors  to-day  are 
worth  thirteen  billions  —  one-fourth  of  the  whole 
national  wealth.  And  these  religious  Monte  Chris¬ 
tos  are  growing  richer  every  day.  After  paying 
their  living  expenses  and  benevolences,  they  lay 
up  every  year  $435,000,000.  These  figures  make 
the  $10,000,000  contributed  by  them  to  home  and 
foreign  missions  seem  rather  niggardly  ;  but  they 
are  built  on  rock-bed. 

Christian  citizens  have  not  only  overwhelming 
numbers  and  swelling  wealth  ;  they  also  possess 
the  means  and  fruits  of  intelligence.  Ninety  years 
ago  there  were  1 2  denominational  and  8  undenom¬ 
inational  colleges  in  the  United  States.  To-day 
there  are  more  than  300  of  the  former,  and  nearly 
70  of  the  latter  —  and  most  of  the  whole  number 


54 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


were  founded  and  have  been  sustained  by  Chris¬ 
tian  money.  Of  undergraduates,  four-fifths  are 
in  Christian  colleges  ;  and  of  these  80  per  cent,  are 
in  institutions  conducted  under  evangelical  in¬ 
fluence. 

The  activities  of  evangelism  have  been  amaz¬ 
ingly  multiplied  and  organized.  Whatever  Chris¬ 
tians  desire  to  do  they  can  now  accomplish  through 
one  or  other  of  a  hundred  auxiliaries.  The  entire 
encyclopedia  has  been  covered.  Within  the  last 
few  decades  there  have  sprung  into  existence 
societies  denominational,  inter-denominational  and 
undenominational  ;  societies  legislative,  and  phil¬ 
anthropic  ;  societies  for  young  folks  and  men  and 
women  ;  societies  in  behalf  of  special  classes  — 
prisoners,  sailors,  freedmen,  Jews,  Indians; 
societies  aimed  at  special  sins  —  anti-slavery, 
anti-lottery,  anti-dueling,  anti-cruelty  ;  societies 
to  meet  special  wants  —  to  build  churches,  aid 
students,  support  the  aged  ;  city  and  .state  and 
home  and  foreign  missionary  societies  ;  education 
and  publication  societies  ;  tradl,  Bible  and  Sunday- 
school  societies ;  academies,  lyceums,  colleges 
and  theological  seminaries  ;  ribbon  clubs,  King’s 
Daughters  ;  Societies  of  Christian  Endeavor,  Ep- 
worth  Leagues,  Baptist  Young  People’s  Unions  ; 
Christian  Temperance  Unions,  Salvation  Armies, 
Young  Men's  and  Young  Women’s  Christian  As¬ 
sociations,  Christian  Citizenship  Leagues;  Evan- 


POWER  AND  RESPONSIBILITY. 


55 


gelical  Alliances  ;  chapters,  circles,  bands,  guilds, 
university  settlements  ;  —  every  imaginable  kind 
of  special  agency  for  every  kind  of  special  work, 
to  meet  the  liking  of  every  kind  of  special  work¬ 
men.  And  these  multitudinous  and  multifarious 
auxiliaries  are  all  operated  by  Christians  in  the 
name  and  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  Does  it  not  read 
like  a  chapter  out  of  Munchausen  f  Yet  the  record 
is  true. 

There  can  be,  therefore,  no  question  as  to  the 
ability  of  Christian  citizens  to  do  anything,  every¬ 
thing  they  are  really  resolved  to  do.  They  have 
the  numbers,  the  wealth,  the  education,  and  the 
agencies.  The  community  concedes  to  them 
moral  leadership,  and  looks  to  them  for  initiative, 
and  they  are  hallowed  with  prestige.  If  respon¬ 
sibility  is  measured  by  power,  then  the  responsi¬ 
bility  of  the  Christian  citizens  of  America  is  wide 
as  the  continent,  deep  as  its  needs,  high  as  its 
aspirations,  solemn  as  the  judgment  day.  There 
5,000,000  voters  who  are  church  members. 
These  are  reinforced  by  4,000,000  more,  who  are 
Christians  by  birth,  association,  sympathy.  They 
must  and  they  do  bear  the  responsibility  for  what 
is  and  what  should  be,  before  God  and  at  the  bar 
of  public  opinion. 

Tet  the  old  day  end  when  Christians  divorced 
their  citizenship  from  their  religion.  Let  the 
new  day  dawn  when  Christians  shall  recognize 


56 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


the  truth  that  their  citizenship  is  as  much  under 
the  law  of  Christ  as  their  church-membership  is  ; 
and  that  in  America  the  primary  and  the  ballot- 
box  are  as  sacred  as  the  prayer-meeting  and  the 
altar. 

In  succeeding  chapters  we  shall  point  out  the 
arena,  and  .show  where  and  how  Christian  citizens 
should  act. 


PART  III. 


THE  ARENA. 


I. 


PRIMARY  AND  BARDOT- BOX. 

When  the  Christian  citizen  enters  the  arena  of 
political  duty,  he  straightway  finds  himself  face 
to  face  with  two  agencies  which  are  fundamental 
in  our  system,  viz.:  the  primary  and  the  ballot- 
box. 

What  is  a  primary  ?  It  is  a  ward,  or  preciudt, 
or  town  meeting  of  citizens  belonging  to  the  party 
calling  it,  at  which  the  first  steps  are  taken  to¬ 
ward  the  nomination  of  various  candidates  for 
political  office.  By  whom  is  it  called  ?  By  the 
local  party  managing  committee,  which  fixes  the 
hour  and  place.  How  is  it  composed  ?  Nominally, 
all  citizens  of  the  party  in  the  primary  district  are 
its  constituents  ;  in  fadt,  it  is  made  up  only  of 
those  who  attend  it.  Since  it  is  for  the  interests 
of  the  party  managers  to  keep  the  numbers  small 
and  manageable,  the  time  and  place  of  meeting 
are  seldom  published,  only  those  being  notified 
who  are  subservient.  Should  others  appear,  they 
are  ejedted  on  some  plausible  pretext  of  partizan 
irregularity,  absence  of  name  from  the  check  list 
—  which  is  presumed  to  contain  all  names  of 
eligible  persons  —  or  as  chronic  ‘  ‘  kickers.  ’  ’ 

What  are  the  fundtions  of  the  primary  ?  Here 

59 


Go 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZKNSHIP. 


representatives  are  elected  to  the  municipal  coun¬ 
cil  —  if  it  be  held  in  a  city  —  or  selectmen  are  cho¬ 
sen —  if  it  be  in  a  rural  district;  local  party  man¬ 
agers  or  committees  are  selected  ;  and  delegates 
are  elected  to  forthcoming  assembly,  or  senatorial, 
or  judicial,  or  city,  or  state  conventions,  called  to 
nominate  candidates  for  the  offices  respectively  in¬ 
dicated  by  these  titles.  In  brief,  the  primary  is 
precisely  what  the  name  denotes  —  the  starting 
point  of  the  entire  political  machinery  of  repub¬ 
lican  government.  So-called  higher  assemblies 
simply  register  in  a  formal,  official  way,  what  the 
star-chamber  which  controls  the  primary  may  de¬ 
cide  upon. 

This  explains  the  eagerness  of  professional  poli¬ 
ticians  to  dominate  it.  And  the  faCt  of  this 
domination  accounts  for  most  of  the  political  evils 
which  flourish  among  us  —  the  permanency  of 
‘  ‘  bosses,  ’  ’  the  chronic  presence  of  ‘  ‘  boodle  ’  ’ 
aldermen  in  municipal  councils,  the  quartering  of 
officers,  whose  virtue  is  loose,  in  city  halls,  the 
gift  for  private  consideration  of  valuable  public 
franchises  to  bloated  monopolies,  the  transforma¬ 
tion  of  offices  in  the  civil  service  from  public 
trusts  into  party  .spoils,  unfair  taxation,  and  the 
reign  of  the  saloon,  the  brothel,  and  the  gambling 
hell. 

Trace  it  a  little  further.  Take  an  instance  from 
city  politics.  The  bosses  manipulate  the  pri- 


PRIMARY  AND  B ALLOT- BOX.  6 1 

mary,  while  we  hurrah  for  government  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people!  When  the 
city  convention  meets,  the  nominations  agreed 
upon  by  the  bosses  are  ‘  ‘  put  through  ’  ’  by  the 
delegates  sent  up  from  the  primaries  with  that 
understanding.  There  is  no  deliberation.  Every¬ 
thing  is  cut  and  dried.  Tike  the  figure  in  a  con¬ 
fectioner’s  window  which  seems  to  turn  the  crank 
in  grinding  chocolate,  but  which  is  really  itself 
turned  by  the  crank,  —  so  the  convention  seems  to 
work,  but  is  really  itself  ‘  ‘  worked.  ’  ’  After  a  per- 
funCtory  ratification  of  the  will  of  the  bosses,  the 
convention  adjourns.  Hurrah  for  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people! 
Next  comes  the  election.  The  workers  hurry 
here  and  scurry  there  to  get  out  the  voters.  The 
polls  are  closed.  At  the  proper  time  the  new  city 
officers  are  installed.  Then  comes  the  merriest, 
maddest  day  of  all  —  the  day  when  the  offices  are 
distributed  ;  also  according  to  a  prearranged  plan. 
And  the  powers  that  be  wink  and  smile  and  shout, 
“Hurrah  for  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  and  for.  the  people!  We  are  the  people. 
E  pluribus  unum.  Erin  go  brctgh  !  ” 

It  is  thus  evident  that  the  primary  contains  the 
promise  and  potency  of  the  entire  political  system 
in  America.  Those  who  control  it  dominate  every¬ 
thing  that  proceeds  from  it,  as  the  cause  condi¬ 
tions  the  result. 


62 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


Civic  reform  must  begin  at  the  primary.  There 
is  no  decent  reason  why  Christian  citizens,  aided 
by  good  citizens,  should  not  garrison  this  Gibral¬ 
tar.  It  will  take  time.  But  free  institutions  pre¬ 
suppose  that  citizens  will  take  time.  It  calls  for 
vigilance.  But  it  is  a  saying  as  old  as  Demos¬ 
thenes,  that  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty  — 
eternal  vigilance.  Citizens  who  refuse  to  exercise 
vigilance,  should  accept  their  slavery  without  a 
murmur.  Citizens  who  will  not  take  time  should 
emigrate  to  Russia,  where  the  Czar  relieves  his 
subjects  of  political  responsibility.  It  is  certain 
that  if  we  do  not  hold  the  primary  for  good  gov¬ 
ernment,  those  who  are  patriots  for  revenue  only, 
and  whose  version  of  the  golden  rule  is,  ‘  ‘  Do 
others,  or  others  will  do  you,” — will  continue 
to  hold  it  for  bad  government. 

The  primary  is  a  means  to  an  end.  This  end 
is  the  ballot-box.  What  goes  in  at  the  hopper  of 
the  primary,  in  case  of  party  success,  comes  out 
in  the  trough  of  the  ballot-box.  The  process 
needs  guarding  at  both  ends.  But  citizens  who 
negledt  the  one  are  apt  to  slight  the  other.  Hence, 
as  nine  voters  out  of  every  ten  never  go  to  a  pri¬ 
mary,  so  four  voters  out  of  every  twelve  never  go 
to  the  ballot-box. 

These  absentees  represent  the  best  class  —  men 
of  means,  education,  and  social  standing.  They 
profess  to  lie  disgusted  with  politics,  yet  do  not  be- 


PRIMARY  AND  BALBOT-BOX.  63 

stir  themselves  to  remedy  the  evils  of  which  they 
complain.  The  primary  and  the  ballot-box  are 
thus  given  over  into  the  hands  of  men  who  make 
their  living  by  polities,  who,  while  wearing  a  party 
collar,  trade  in  votes  as  tradesmen  do  in  merchan¬ 
dise,  and  in  moments  of  frankness  confess  that 
“  there’s  no  polities  in  politics  ”  — it  is  business. 

Out  of  this  negledt  on  the  part  of  the  natu¬ 
ral  leaders  of  the  community  is  evolved  the  boss 
and  boodling.  Some  broad-shouldered,  hard- 
knuckled  rogue  who  is  more  adroit  than  the  rest 
of  the  “boys,”  who  “toils  not  neither  does  he 
spin,”  whose  shirt-front  is  decorated  by  a  dia¬ 
mond  big  enough  for  the  headlight  of  a  locomotive, 
and  whose  fingers  are  manacled  with  rings  —  man¬ 
acles  which  ought  to  be  worn  on  the  wrists  —  is 
presently  recognized  as  a  boss.  A  number  of  local 
bosses  get  together  and  make  a  “combine,”  by 
pooling  their  interests  for  the  purpose  of  filling  as 
many  offices  as  possible  with  their  adherents,  and 
thus  controlling  the  municipality,  or  county,  or  ' 
state.  This  combination  is  called  a  “  ring.”  In 
the  ring  there  is  usually  a  boss  who  is  more  skill¬ 
ful  and  influential  than  the  rest.  By  and  by  he 
expands  into  a  boss  of  the  bosses.  We  have  a 
Tweed,  a  McManes,  a  Croker,  a  Hopkins,  a  Cox, 
in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago  and  Cincin¬ 
nati  ;  and  a  Gorman,  a  Quay,  an  Altgeld,  and  a 
Platt  in  the  wider  arena  of  state  and  nation. 


64 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


We  must  not  conclude  that  these  men  are  excep- 
tionalty  bad.  They  are  not.  But  seeing  a  door 
leading  to  wealth  and  power,  left  wide  open  by 
public  negleCt  and  indifference,  they  have  walked 
in  and  made  themselves  at  home.  We  must  turn 
them  out,  and  lock  them  out  —  and  lock  them 
up. 

In  view  of  the  situation,  is  it  any  wonder  that 
elections  are  often  farces  ?  Ballot-boxes  in  charge 
of  thugs,  guarded  by  policemen  wTho  club  the  in¬ 
nocent  and  proteCt  the  guilty,  and  count  in  or 
count  out  candidates,  not  according  to  the  num¬ 
ber  of  votes  cast,  but  in  obedience  to  the  orders  of 
the  bosses,  have  ceased  to  be  the  palladium  of 
liberty,  and  have  become  a  Punch  and  Judy  show 
of  political  sharpers.  Yet  the  ballot-box  is  the 
ark  of  American  freedom.  Whoever  lays  an  un¬ 
hallowed  hand  upon  it  deserves  to  be  smitten  by 
the  thunder  bolt  of  enraged  patriotism. 

The  sources  of  ring  revenue  are  numerous  and 
lucrative.  There  are,  to  begin  with,  the  regular 
party  contributions  of  partizans  ;  next,  the  special 
payments  of  men  looking  for  a  job  ;  then  the  per¬ 
centage  money  of  office-holders  ;  then  the  sums 
‘  ‘  contributed  ’  ’  by  wealthy  contractors  in  expec¬ 
tation  of  fat  contracts  ;  then  the  amounts  paid  by 
monopolists  for  monopolies  ;  and  above  all  the 
enormous  sums  levied  on  the  vices  for  ‘  ‘  protec¬ 
tion  ”  or  immunity.  Bonaparte  said  “a  tax  on 


PRIMARY  AND  BARROT-BOX. 


65 


alcohol  would  yield  more  revenue  than  a  tax  on 
Bibles.”  The  experience  of  the  ring  proves  it. 
Its  members  waste  a  fortune  on  a  ball  and  hang 
up  the  salary  of  a  judge  in  a  chandelier.  When 
they  are  short  of  funds  they  replenish  by  a  new 
application  of  the  political  rule  of  three,  viz. :  sub¬ 
traction,  division  and  silence. 


Controlling  the  primary  and  the  ballot-box,  the 
bosses  also  control  the  voters  —  or  at  least  enough 
of  them  to  retain  their  supremacy.  For  instance, 
they  ha\  e  the  backing  of  the  ‘ '  regular  1  ’  vote,  and 
of  the  purchasable  vote,  and  of  the  vote  of  the 
vices,  and  also  of  those  in  offices  which  they  have 
filled,  and  of  those  who  want  to  get  in  ;  a  compaCt 
political  army,  disciplined,  organized,  skillfully 
led,  and  accustomed  to  victory. 

The  essential  point  of  all  this  is  the  need  on  the 
part  of  Christian  citizens  of  going  into  politics  and 
of  staying  there.  The  Nathan  of  patriotism  traces 
the  prevalent  political  corruption  back  to  every 
voter  who  is  derelict,  and  says  to  him,  “Thou  art 
the  man.  ’  When  the  primary  and  the  prayer¬ 
meeting  are  held  011  the  same  night,  the  true 
prayer-meeting  is  the  primary.  When  election 
day  dawns,  the  Christian  citizen  is  to  recognize  it 
as  the  Sabbath  of  patriotism,  and  to  hear  and  heed 
the  Commandment :  ‘ '  Remember  the  Sabbath 
day  1°  keep  it  holy.  A  bad  citizen  can  not  be  a 
good  Christian.  In  a  land  of  liberty  the  sons  of 


66 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


freedom  are  bound  to  subordinate  personal  and 
selfish  interests  to  the  common  weal.  Since  Chris¬ 
tians  have  the  power  to  rule,  they  must,  as  our 
Methodist  brethren  say,  ‘  ‘  get  religion’  ’  enough  to 
lead  them  to  the  primary  and  the  ballot-box, where, 
and  where  alone,  their  dominancy  can  be  secured. 
The  prostitution  of  these  agencies  of  government 
is  the  first  great  cause  of  harm  and  mischief  to 
the  commonwealth.  Their  restoration  to  normal 
uses  must  be  the  first  great  remedy. 


II. 


THE  CIVIL  .SERVICE. 

We  have  seen  how  the  primary  and  the  ballot- 
box  have  been  seized  by  ‘  ‘  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser 
sort  ’  ’  and  bent  to  unpatriotic  ends.  The  civil  ser¬ 
vice,  municipal,  state,  and  national,  has  been  in 
like  manner  wrested  from  legitimate  to  illegiti¬ 
mate  uses  —  a  second  cause  of  continental  misrule. 
A  brief  recital  of  the  fadts  in  the  case  will  show 
how  and  why. 

What  is  a  town  ?  It  is  a  civic  corporation,  of 
which  all  the  citizens  are  members,  and  in  which 
all  have  a  proprietary  interest.  If  the  corporation 
is  well  managed,  all  gain  ;  if  it  is  badly  managed, 
all  lose.  The  objedls  for  which  this  corporation 
exists  should  didlate  its  government.  What  are 
these  objedls  ?  They  are  the  preservation  of  order, 
the  enforcement  of  law,  the  providing  of  element¬ 
ary  education,  the  securing  of  sanitation;  in  brief, 
the  safe-guarding  of  life,  liberty,  and  property. 
These  are  ends  which  concern  all,  and  to  secure 
which  all  should  combine. 

Now,  the  citizens  of  a  cosmopolitan  town  are  of 
every  race,  creed,  calling,  and  party.  These  dif¬ 
ferences  have  their  appropriate  spheres.  Whether 

67 


68 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


a  man  is  an  American  or  a  foreigner  is  a  fair  in¬ 
quiry,  for  example,  when  membership  in  a  society 
based  on  nationality  is  under  consideration. 
Whether  a  man  is  a  Protestant  or  a  Catholic,  is  a 
faCt  to  be  ascertained  when  the  question  is  one  of 
church  preferment.  Whether  a  man  is  a  clergy¬ 
man  or  a  layman  is  relevant  when  fitness  for  a 
business  or  for  an  ecclesiastical  position  is  in  de¬ 
bate.  Whether  a  man  is  a  Republican  or  a 
Democrat,  is  important,  when  one  or  the  other 
political  party  proposes  to  nominate  or  eleCt  a  con¬ 
gressional  candidate. 

But  has  politics  any  more  connection  with  the 
mayoralty  than  with  the  directorship  of  a  bank  ? 
What  has  the  tariff  to  do  with  an  inspectorship  of 
buildings  ?  What  has  free  trade  to  do  with  a  com- 
missionership  of  public  parks?  What  has  the 
ratio  of  sixteen-to-one  in  the  coinage  of  silver  as 
compared  with  gold,  to  do  with  the  office  of  cor¬ 
poration  counsel  ?  Is  there  any  more  relation  be¬ 
tween  the  Republican  or  the  Democratic  platform 
and  the  board  of  aldermen,  than  there  is  between 
such  a  platform  and  the  selection  by  a  railroad 
company  of  a  conductor  ? 

What  has  creed  to  do  with  municipal  office? 
Why  should  all  of  our  policemen  be  Irishmen  — 
preaching  home  rule  for  Ireland  and  practising 
foreign  rule  in  America  ?  Is  there  any  good  rea¬ 
son  why  a  native  should  be  put  at  a  disadvantage 


THE  CIVIL  SERVICE. 


69 


by  his  race  or  his  creed  in  his  own  country  ? 
Ought  not  citizenship  to  be  the  true  qualification 
for’ interest  and  participation  in  city  affairs  ?  And 
is  not  fitness  the  only  proper  qualification  for  mu¬ 
nicipal  office  ?  To  ask  these  questions  is  to  answer 
them.  To  argue  them  is  like  debating  axioms. 
Yet  such  is  the  absurd  and  intolerable  situation, 
that  the  questions  and  the  argument  are  alike 
necessary. 

“Ah,”  cries  an  objedfor,  “such  reasoning 
would  disallow  politics  everywhere.”  Not  so. 
Politics  is  legitimate  in  national  affairs ;  because 
the  national  policy  is  to  be  discussed  and  decided. 
Those  officers  whose  functions  require  them  to 
manipulate  statecraft,  ought  to  be  nominated  and 
eledted  on  party  lines,  since  government  in  a  free 
country  is  by  party.  But  even  an  eledtion  which 
turns  on  party  issues,  should  put  in  or  out  only 
the  superior  officers  who  shape  and  dominate 
national  policy,  leaving  untouched  inferior  officers 
whose  duties  are  merely  routine.  This  rule  is 
recognized  in  the  civil  service  of  England,  Gerr 
many,  and  France,  where  only  the  heads  of  depart¬ 
ments  are  changed  by  a  party  vidtory,  while  the 
subalterns  hold  by  the  tenure  of  good  behavior 
and  efficiency. 

So  it  was  in  the  United  States  at  the  start. 

It  is  true  that  the  constitution  vests  the  right 
of  appointing  to  federal  offices  in  the  President, 


70 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


and  requires  the  consent  of  the  Senate  only  to  the 
more  important  positions.  It  is  a  fa(5t  that  this 
clause  also  gives  to  the  President  a  presumptive 
power  of  removal  at  pleasure  and  without  cause 
assigned.  But  it  is  equally  unquestionable  that 
the  earlier  Presidents  considered  the  tenure  as 
being  during  good  behavior. 

When  Washington  began  his  administration, 
he  said  to  a  friend  who  importuned  him  to  appoint 
to  office  one  whom  he  believed  to  be  incompetent : 

‘  ‘  My  personal  feelings  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
case.  I  am  not  George  Washington,  but  Presi¬ 
dent  of  the  United  States.  As  George  Washington 
I  would  do  this  man  any  kindness  ;  as  President 
of  the  United  States  I  can  do  nothing.” 

Parties  began  to  form  as  a  result  of  the  confli(5l 
of  opinions  regarding  the  adoption  of  the  Federal 
Constitution.  Toward  the  close  of  Washington’s 
administration  they  were  fully  developed,  and 
have  lived,  with  varying  fortunes,  to  this  day. 
Yet  the  rise  of  parties  did  not  vary  the  practice  of 
Washington.  His  successor,  John  Adams,  was 
a  party  president ;  nevertheless  he  continued  his 
illustrious  predecessor’s  civil  service  policy. 
Adams’  successor  was  Jefferson.  He,  too,  was 
elected  by  a  party.  Yet  he  declared:  “  The  only 
questions  concerning  a  candidate  for  office  should 
be  —  Is  he  honest  ?  is  he  capable  ?  is  he  faithful  to 
the  Constitution  ?  ’  ’  Under  Madison,  Monroe,  and 


THE  CIVIL  SERVICE. 


71 


John  Quincy  Adams,  these  were  the  invariable 
tests.  During  the  first  forty-four  years  of  our 
national  history  only  seventy-three  persons  were 
removed  from  office  —  and  these  for  cause. 

But  a  change  was  at  hand.  When  Jackson 
entered  the  White  House,  in  1829,  it  was  distinctly 
announced  for  the  first  time,  that  public  office 
was  political  spoil.  To  William  R.  Marcy,  of  New 
York,  belongs  the  unenviable  fame,  not  of  the  dis¬ 
covery  but  of  the  declaration,  which  he  made  in 
these  words  :  ‘  ‘  There  is  nothing  wrong  in  the 
rule  that  to  the  viCtors  belong  the  spoils  of  the 
enemy.”  Thus  parties  were  ranged  over  against 
one  another  not  as  fellow’  citizens,  but  as  foes  ; 
and  their  peaceful  contests  were  thenceforth 
embittered  by  all  the  passions  and  greed  of  war. 
Jackson  turned  officials  of  the  opposite  political 
party,  who  answered  the  three  famous  tests  of 
Jefferson,  out,  with  the  open  avowal  that  he 
wanted  his  partizans  in;  and  his  successors  have 
continued  to  do  so  ever  since,  with  the  mechanical 
regularity  with  which  the  ax  of  the  guillotine 
falls  at  a  French  execution. 

The  change  was  not  made  without  a  protest  at 
the  time.  Henry  Clay,  voicing  the  spirit  of  our 
early  day  and  the  conscience  of  all  days,  cried 
on  the  floor  of  Congress,  in  ringing  tones  :  “  It  is  a 
detestable  system ,  drawn  from  the  worst  period  of 
the  Roman  republic,  and  if  it  were  to  be  perpe- 


72 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


tuated  if  the  offices,  and  honors,  and  dignities 
of  the  people  were  to  be  put  up  to  a  scramble,  and 
to  be  decided  by  the  result  of  every  presidential 
election  —  our  government,  and  institutions,  be¬ 
coming  intolerable,  would  finally  end  in  a  despot¬ 
ism  as  inexorable  as  that  of  Constantinople.” 

From  Clay  down  to  our  time,  this  protest  has 
continued.  Carl  Schurz  affirms  that  the  spoils 
system  “  has  already  killed  two  presidents  —  one, 
the  first  Harrison,  by  worry,  and  the  other,  Gar¬ 
field,  by  murder  ;  and  more  recently,  it  has  killed 
a  mayor  in  Chicago  and  a  judge  in  Tennessee.” 

But  notwithstanding  these  protests,  what  Clay 
termed  “the  detestable  system”  was  adopted, 
and  has  become  the  traditionary  policy  of  the 
country. 

Thus  in  the  land  of  Uncle  Sam,  the  civil  service 
is  manned,  not  by  merit  and  during  good  be¬ 
havior,  but  as  a  reward  for  unscrupulous  party- 
service  on  the  nomination  of  party  bosses  ;  and  the 
incumbents,  aware  of  the  insecurity  of  their 
tenure,  are  impelled,  not  to  perform  their  duties 
in  a  creditable  manner,  but  to  please  the  appoint¬ 
ing  power,  serve  the  party,  and  use  official  posi¬ 
tion  for  personal  gain.  If  the  opposite  party 
comes  in  they  go  out.  Even  though  their  party 
retains  power,  they  are  soon  rotated  out  to  make 
room  for  a  new  gang  of  incoming  office-seekers. 
When  expertness  counts  for  nothing  why  bother 


THE  CIVIL,  SERVICE. 


73 


to  become  expert  ?  Can  any  one  conceive  of  a 
system  better  adapted  to  debauch  character  and 
destroy  efficiency  ?  The  wonder  is,  not  that  there 
are  so  few,  but  that  there  are  so  many,  honest 
men  in  the  civil  service. 

Mr.  Samuel  Swartwout,  a  friend  and  partizan 
of  President  Jackson,  describes  the  effedt  upon  a 
participant  in  a  graphic  letter  to  a  correspondent : 
“The  great  goers  are  the  new  men,  the  old 
troopers  being  all  spavined  and  ring-boned  from 
previous  hard  travel.  I’ve  got  the  bots,  the  fet¬ 
lock,  the  hip-joint,  gravel,  halt,  and  founders  — 
and  I  assure  you  if  I  can  only  keep  my  own  legs 
I  shall  do  well  ;  but  I’m  darned  if  I  can  carry  any 
weight  with  me.’’ 

“If  this  had  been  a  true  description  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  military  and  naval  service  of 
this  country  had  been  entered,’’  during  the  re¬ 
bellion,  remarks  Mr.  George  Wm.  Curtis,  after 
quoting  Mr.  Swartwout,  “  we  may  be  very  sure 
that  no  Grant  with  the  bots  would  have  emerged 
from  the  Wilderness,  no  hip-jointed  Thomas  would 
have  pounded  away  at  Chattanooga,  no  broken- 
kneed  Meade  have  hurled  back  the  rebellion  at 
Gettysburg,  no  halting  Farragut  have  forced  his 
way  to  New  Orleans,  no  spavined  Sherman  have 
marched  to  the  sea,  no  foundered  Sheridan  have 
scoured  the  Shenandoah,  nor  graveled  Winslow 
in  the  Kearsarge  have  .sunk  the  Alabama." 


74 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


Now,  finding  this  abominable  system  in  vogue, 
politicians  have  naturally  adopted  it,  and  extend¬ 
ed  it  from  the  nation  into  the  state  ;  from  the  state 
into  the  county  ;  from  the  county  into  the  town, 
where  the  party  discipline  is  most  stridl,  where 
the  offices  are  most  numerous,  and  where  the 
spoils  are  most  valuable. 

We  see  the  results  of  this  vicious  system  in  the 
grist  of  personal  and  official  corruption  ground 
out  by  it.  For  one  thing,  it  has  tempted  men  to 
make  politics  a  career.  The  management  of 
primaries,  conventions,  and  elections  calls  for 
constant  attention.  This  can  be  given  only  by  a 
class  who  make  a  living  out  of  it.  Hence,  the 
professional  politician.  He  is  not  even  a  party 
man,  save  as  party  ministers  to  profit.  He  serves 
God,  just  so  far  as  not  to  offend  the  devil.  Tike 
Ah  Sin ,  the  “  Heathen  Chinee,”  he  is  an  adept 
in  ‘  ‘  ways  that  are  dark  and  tricks  that  are 
vain."  He  belongs  to  any  party  which  he  can 
run  ;  1  ’  clamors  for  high  tariff,  low  tariff,  or 
no  tariff,  according  to  his  estimate  of  the  probable 
majorities  one  way  or  the  other  ;  but  believes  re¬ 
ligiously  in  a  tariff  levied  by  himself,  for  himself. 
Tike  the  English  wit,  when  asked  what  is  meant 
by  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number,  he 
would  unhesitatingly  answer,  “  Number  one  !  ” 
For  another  thing,  at  every  election  and  espec¬ 
ially  at  every  national  election,  as  an  eminent 


THE  CIVIL  SERVICE. 


75 


advocate  of  civil  service  reform  points  out,  “  the 
country  presents  a  most  ridiculous,  revolting  and 
disheartening  spectacle.  The  business  of  a  great 
people,  the  legislation  of  Congress,  are  subordi¬ 
nated  to  distributing  the  plunder  among  eager 
partizans.  President,  secretaries,  senators,  repre¬ 
sentatives,  are  dogged,  besieged,  besought,  de¬ 
nounced,  and  become  mere  office  brokers.  The 
heads  of  departments,  who  are  virtually  the  ap¬ 
pointing  power,  have  no  personal  knowledge  of 
the  applicants.  They  have  also  their  own  hopes, 
ambitions  and  desires.  They  must  depend  upon 
Congressional  brokers,  who  have  also  their  own 
purposes.  They,  in  turn,  rely  upon  local  com¬ 
mittees  and  partizans  at  home  —  all  intent  on 
profit.  Swift’s  contemptuous  lines  irresistibly 
repeat  themselves  : 

‘  So  naturalists  observe,  a  flea 
Has  smaller  fleas  that  on  him  prey  : 

And  these  have  smaller  ones  to  bite  ’em, 

And  so  proceed  ad  infinitum .’ 

‘  ‘They  all  worry,  and  bargain,  and  buy,  and  plot. 
The  country  seethes  with  intrigue  and  corruption. 
The  time  is  short.  No  man  is  sure  of  to-morrow. 
Make  hay  while  the  sun  shines,  and  the  devil  take 
the  hindmost.  Economy,  honesty,  honor  become 
words  of  no  meaning.  Here  is  an  incompetent 
do-nothing  who  is  always  shiftlessly  going  be¬ 
hind  in  his  affairs,  and  presto  !  he  plunges  into 


76 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


politics.  He  gets  up  clubs,  meetings,  proces¬ 
sions,  transparencies  ;  becomes  an  active  ‘  work¬ 
er  ;  ’  runs  about  posting  placards,  and  procuring 
speakers  and  rousing  the  country  for  Jones  and 
justice,  or  Jenkins  and  the  rights  of  man.  Ob¬ 
servers  are  refreshed  to  behold  a  little  pristine 
patriotism  and  devotion,  and  to  see  an  honest 
man  taking  an  adlive  interest  in  politics.  Alas  ! 
the  moment  the  election  is  over,  he  presents  his 
little  bill,  and  takes  out  his  patriotic  devotion  in 
the  biggest  office  he  can  get.”  5 

Thus  public  office  becomes  a  partizan  spoil, 
conferred  on  the  principle  of  quid  pro  quo.  It 
appears  to  be  caricature,  but  is  sober  truth,  when 
Lowell  makes  a  presidential  candidate  write  to  a 
friend  in  maritime  New  England  : 

“  If  you  git  me  inside  the  White  House, 

Your  head  with  ile  I’ll  kinder  ’nint 
By  gitting  you  inside  the  lighthouse 
Down  to  the  end  of  Jaalam  pint.” 

How  did  this  wretched  travesty  get  itself  adopted 
in  the  United  States?  Bryce  in  his  exhaustive 
work  entitled  “  The  American  Commonwealth  ’  ’ — 
perhaps  the  ablest  analysis  of  our  institutions  ever 
penned  —  outlines  the  reasons  in  these  words  : 
“  The  politicians  could  hardly  have  riveted  such 
a  system  on  the  country  but  for  certain  notions 
which  had  become  current  among  the  people. 

‘  Rotation  in  office  ’  was,  and  indeed  by  most 


THK  CIVIL  SERVICE. 


77 


men  still  is,  held  to  be  conformable  to  the  genius 
of  a  democracy.  It  gives  every  man  an  equal 
chance  of  power  and  salary,  resembling  herein 
the  Athenian  and  Florentine  system  of  choosing 
officers  by  lot.  It  is  supposed  to  stimulate  men 
to  exertion,  to  foster  a  laudable  ambition  to  serve 
the  country  or  neighborhood,  to  prevent  the 
growth  of  an  official  caste,  with  its  habits  of 
routine,  its  stiffness,  its  arrogance.  It  recognizes 
that  equality  which  is  so  dear  to  the  American 
mind,  bidding  an  official  remember  that  he  is  the 
servant  of  the  people,  and  not  their  master,  like 
the  bureaucrats  of  Europe.  It  forbids  him  to 
fancy  that  he  has  any  right  to  be  where  he  is, 
any  ground  for  expecting  to  stay  there.  It  min¬ 
isters  in  an  odd  kind  of  way  to  that  fondness  for 
novelty  and  change  in  persons  and  surroundings 
which  is  natural  in  the  constantly  moving  com¬ 
munities  of  the  West.  The  habit  which  grew  up 
of  electing  national,  and  state,  and  local  officers  for 
short  terms,  tended  in  the  same  direction.  If 
thos^  whom  the  people  chose  were  to  hold  office 
only  for  a  year  or  two,  why  should  those  in  ap¬ 
pointive  positions  have  longer  tenure  ?  And 
the  use  of  patronage  for  political  purposes  was 
further  justified  by  the  example  of  England,  whose 
government  was  believed  by  the  Americans  of 
fifty  years  ago  to  be  worked,  as  in  the  last  century 
it  largely  was  worked,  by  the  patronage  of  the 


78 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  his  function  of  distri¬ 
buting  places  to  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  honors —  such  as  orders  and  steps 
in  the  peerage  —  to  members  in  the  House  of 
Eords,  and  ecclesiastical  preferments  to  the  rela¬ 
tives  of  both.”  6 

These  remarks  explain  but  do  not  justify  the 
spoils  system.  It  is  not  strange  that  such  abuses 
should  have  attracted  attention.  Indeed,  as  long 
ago  as  1853  Congress  passed  an  adt  requiring 
clerks  appointed  to  the  departments  at  Washing¬ 
ton  to  pass  a  qualifying  examination  —  although 
public  officers,  having  no  sympathy  with  it,  failed 
to  enforce  it.  It  la}^  in  the  archives  as  a  mere 
protest.  Eighteen  years  later  a  public  agitation 
began  in  the  interest  of  civil  service  reform,  and 
still  continues.  Progress  has  been  slow  and  inter¬ 
mittent  ;  partly  because  of  the  conservatism  of  the 
people,  but  chiefly  on  account  of  the  deadly  op¬ 
position  of  professional  politicians  whose  trade  is 
endangered.  Nevertheless  a  good  beginning  has 
been  made.  President  Grant  called  attention 
to  the  subjedt  and  recommended  adtion.  Presi¬ 
dent  Hayes  went  further  and  aided  an  enactment, 
which  failed  through  public  indifference  and  offi¬ 
cial  hostility.  President  Arthur  named  a  com¬ 
mission  under  the  Pendleton  Adt,  which  insti¬ 
tuted  a  board  of  civil  service  commissioners,  and 
diredted  them  to  apply  a  competitive  examination 


THE  CIVIL,  SERVICE. 


79 


to  a  considerable  number  of  offices  in  the  depart¬ 
ments  at  Washington,  and  a  smaller  nuttiber  in 
outlying  districts.  President  Cleveland  did  most 
of  all,  having  in  the  last  year  of  his  second  term 
swept  all  but  seven  hundred  out  of  the  120,000 
offices  at  his  disposal,  under  civil  service  com¬ 
petitive  rules. 

At  the  same  time,  the  States  and  cities  have  not 
been  idle.  In  New  York  competitive  examina¬ 
tions  have  been  in  vogue  for  several  years.  In 
Chicago,  in  1894,  civil  service  reform  was  adopt¬ 
ed  by  a  popular  majority  of  50,000  votes.  Other 
centers  have  followed,  or  are  about  to  follow, 
these  wholesome  examples. 

Reform  has  aimed  at  two  points  ;  first,  the 
securing  competent  officials  by  competitive  ex¬ 
aminations  of  such  a  character  as  to  ascertain 
fitness ;  and  next,  at  a  reasonable  security  of 
tenure,  while  leaving  with  the  appointing  au¬ 
thority  a  discretion  of  removal  for  cause. 

There  is  still  widespread  indifference  among  the 
voters  to  this  vital  rectification,  and  covert  hostil¬ 
ity  among  the  gangsters.  It  is  the  special  duty 
of  Christian  citizens  to  lend  a  hand  in  the  struggle 
and  assure  the  victory. 


Ill 


unrestricted  immigration. 

A  third  cause  of  political  misrule  in  the  United 
States,  is  unrestricted  immigration. 

A  narrow  Americanism  is  un-American.  We 
are  a  nation  of  immigrants.  The  only  original 
American  is  the  Indian  —  and  he  is  disfranchised ! 
From  the  outset  naturalized  foreigners  have  illus¬ 
trated  some  of  the  most  splendid  chapters  in  our 
history.  The  strength  and  attractiveness  of  our 
civilization  lie  in  the  variety  of  strains  in  our 
blood. 

But  there  are  immigrants  and  immigrants.  As 
some  of  the  saints,  smuggled  into  the  calendar, 
should  have  been  cannonaded  instead  of  canonized ; 
so  many  who  immigrate  ought  to  emigrate. 
Within  the  last  few  decades  immigration  has 
deteriorated.  For  many  years  those  who  came 
hither  from  across  the  sea  were  chiefly  subjects  of 
Great  Britain  and  Germany,  in  essential  sym¬ 
pathy  with  American  ideals.  The  great  propor¬ 
tion  of  them  came  hither  with  an  intelligent  and 
moral  purpose  to  seek  freedom  in  religious  faith 
and  political  institutions.  They  were  people  of 
fiber,  poor  in  purse,  but  rich  in  manhood  and 

80 


unrestricted  immigration. 


8  i 


womanhood.  The  ocean  and  the  cost  of  trans¬ 
portation  adted  as  a  sieve  to  strain  out  the  worst 
elements  of  Europe  and  let  through  only  the  more 
worthy. 

All  this  is  changed.  The  sea  is  abolished  by 
steam  and  a  reduced  cost  of  passage.  An  ever- 
enlarging  number  of  more  recent  immigrants 
comes  from  Russia,  Poland,  Bohemia,  Italy, 
Hungary,  Turkey  —  countries  out  of  touch  with 
us.  Victims  of  ages  of  misgovernment,  dwarfed 
in  body,  mind,  and  soul,  soaked  in  animalism, 
slumped  in  disease,  they  lower  our  temper,  add  to 
our  burdens,  perplex  our  problems,  and  bedevil 
our  daily  life,  without  contributing  anything  to 
our  stamina.  Some  years  ago  the  attention  of  the 
government  was  directed  to  this  public  menace. 
Congressional  committees  were  appointed  to  in¬ 
vestigate  and  report.  The  United  States  consuls 
were  also  ordered  to  collect  data.  These  official 
inquiries  ominously  confirm  the  worst  anticipa¬ 
tions.  Reports  made  to  the  Fiftieth  and  Fifty - 
second  Congresses  show  a  .striking  consensus 
of  opinion  concerning  the  low  character  of  our 
present  immigration,  and  prove  that  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa,  taking  advantage  of  the  loose¬ 
ness  of  our  immigration  laws,  have  combined  to 
make  the  United  States  a  Botany  Bay  for  their 
criminals,  an  almshouse  for  their  paupers,  and 
a  browsing  pasture  for  their  ignorance. 


82 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


Nay,  the  Consular  Reports  give  evidence  of  the 
existence  of  regular  societies  in  Europe,  protected 
and  subsidized  by  their  respective  governments  — 
notably  in  Bavaria,  Prussia,  England,  Switzerland 
—  for  the  deportation  of  criminals  and  paupers 
to  America  ;7  while  the  ignorance  that  lands  upon 
our  .shores  bears  the  brand  of  the  four  quarters  of 
the  globe,  knows  nothing  in  every  color,  and 
jabbers  emptily  in  every  tongue  that  Babel  cleft 
our  human  speech  into. 

Between  1820,  when  immigration  began  rapid¬ 
ly  to  make  its  way  hither,  and  1890,  18,128,121 
aliens  landed  in  this  country.8  There  were  living 
herein  1890,  9,249,547.  An  average  of  500,000 
have  entered  the  country  since  1880.  Of  this 
total  of  nearly  10,000,000,  it  is  estimated  that  one 
third  ought  never  to  have  been  admitted  because 
of  ignorance,  pauperism,  or  criminality. 

The  distribution  of  immigrants  is  an  interest¬ 
ing  study.  All  but  530,346  of  those  now  living 
reside  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon’s  line.  For¬ 
merly,  on  account  of  slavery,  and  now  because  of 
the  preoccupation  of  the  soil  by  negroes,  immi¬ 
grants  have  avoided,  and  continue  to  avoid,  the 
South.  Of  the  530,346  residing  there,  151,469 
are  in  Texas.  Some  of  the  Southern  States  have 
less  than  one  per  cent,  of  foreigners.  The  purest 
Americanism  is  found  in  Dixie.  True,  the  South 
has  the  negro  problem  to  solve.  Its  colored  belt 


UNRESTRICTED  IMMIGRATION.  83 

numbered  6,741,941,  when  the  last  national 
census  was  taken.  But  the  colored  people  are 
natives,  with  American  aspirations.  They  take 
kindly  to  education,  are  tractable,  love  sun  and 
fun,  speak  English  —  colored  English  !  and  have 
no  associations  distinct  or  different  from  the 
whites.  Christian  citizens  in  the  South  can 
settle  and  will  settle  their  race  question  by  justice 
and  kindness,  long  before  the  North  has  solved 
kindred  ethnic  problems.  In  what  parts  of  the 
North  are  the  immigrants  found  ?  I11  all  parts  : 

but  chiefly  in  the  strategic  States  of  Massachu¬ 
setts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  Ohio,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin, 
Minnesota,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  the  Da¬ 
kotas,  Montana,  Wyoming,  Utah,  Nevada,  Idaho, 
Washington,  and  California.  If  to  those  who  are 
foreign  born  are  added  their  children  —  many  of 
whom  are  quite  as  foreign  in  their  ideas  of  social 
order  as  their  parents  —  this  element  is  numerically 
stronger  than  the  native  population  in  Massachu¬ 
setts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey, Illinois, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  the  Dakotas, 
Utah,  Nevada,  and  California  ;  while  it  is  a  close 
second  in  the  remainder  of  the  list. 

Moreover,  the  birth-rate  among  the  immigrants 
is  higher  than  it  is  among  the  natives  ;  who  are 
thus  worsted  both  at  the  adult  and  the  childhood 
ends  of  life. 


84 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


The  distribution  of  our  immigrant  population 
is  vitally  related  to  the  growth  and  influence  of 
American  cities.  When  the  first  census  was 
taken  in  1790  there  were  but  13  towns  in  the  13 
States  which  then  formed  the  Union,  with  a  popu¬ 
lation  of  more  than  5,000.  The  urban  popula¬ 
tion  was  3.3  of  the  whole.  In  1890  there  were 
over  500  towns  with  above  5,000  people,  and  the 
percentage  had  risen  to  29.12.  Evidently  we 
are  to  be  a  nation  of  cities.  The  Atlantic  sea¬ 
board  is  already  urban.  I11  the  near  future  the 
shores  of  the  great  lakes,  the  valleys  of  the  Ohio, 
Mississippi  and  Missouri,  and  the  Pacific  slope, 
will  outrival  in  the  number  and  power  and 
splendor  of  their  cities,  the  historic  valleys  of  the 
Nile,  Euphrates  and  Tiber,  when  the  civilization 
of  the  ancients  glittered  at  the  zenith.9  Now,  the 
cities  are  the  Meccas  of  immigrants.  There  are  fifty 
cities  in  the  United  States  whose  population  ranges 
from  20,000  up  into  the  millions.  Of  these  17 
contain  more  foreigners  than  natives.  I11  38, 
foreigners  with  their  immediate  descendants  are  in 
the  majority.  And  in  2 18  of  the  375  towns  which 
have  a  population  of  8,000  or  over,  the  foreign 
element  exceeds  the  native  - —  counting  in  the  for¬ 
eign  element  the  children  of  aliens.  10 

The  sociological  bearing  of  these  fadts  is  ob¬ 
vious. 

Municipal  problems  are  intensified  and  night- 


UNRESTRICTED  IMMIGRATION. 


85 


mared.  The  slums  in  which  aliens  burrow  defy 
sanitation.  The  children  of  the  slums  go  to 
school  to  the  devil  in  the  streets.  The  saloon,  the 
brothel,  and  the  gambling  den  are  regnant. 
Liberty  is  defined  as  license.  Law  is  tyranny. 
Property  is  theft.  Religion  is  a  fad  of  the  well- 
to-do.  God  is  a  fiction  invented  by  priests  as  a  bug- 
a-boo  to  frighten  silly  folks.  These  atheistic  and 
anarchistic  notions  are  brought  over  here  by  im¬ 
migrants  and  domesticated  in  whole  sections  of 
great  cities.  Everybody  drinks  in  Europe — let 
everybody  drink  in  America.  Everybody  recog¬ 
nizes  the  social  evil  as  a  necessity  in  Europe — 
let  everybody  tolerate  it  in  America.  Everybody 
gambles  in  Paris,  Vienna,  Berlin,  Brussels,  Buda¬ 
pest  and  St.  Petersburg  —  let  everybody  gamble 
in  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati, 
St.  Louis,  and  San  Francisco.  Urban  vices  own 
and  operate  a  vast  purchasable  vote  which  holds 
the  balance  of  power  in  all  elections;  thus  present¬ 
ing  to  professional  politicians  an  opportunity  of 
which  they  eagerly  avail  themselves.  The  bood- 
ler  and  boodling  root  themselves  in  this  dung- 
heap.  Opportunity  has  been  called  the  cleverest 
devil.  Opportunity  beckons  and  allures,  de¬ 
bauches  and  damns  at  every  turn.  Our  cities  are 
thus  un- Americanized. 

The  industrial  effedls  are  equally  sad  and 
serious.  The  aliens  landed  here  within  a  decade 


86 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


and  a  half  number  one- tenth  of  our  whole  popu¬ 
lation.  Of  this  tenth  48  per  cent,  had  neither 
training  nor  occupation.  Those  who  had,  were 
accustomed  to  the  pauper  wages  of  Europe.  En¬ 
tering  this  market  they  inevitably  lower  both  the 
morale  and  the  wage  scale.  The  coal  miners  of 
the  anthracite  and  bituminous  regions,  the  miners 
of  the  precious  metals  in  the  West,  are  aliens 
in  overwhelming  numbers,  and  are  ignorant  of 
our  very  language.  The  mills  and  factories  of  the 
manufacturing  States  are  manned  and  womaned 
in  the  same  way.  So  with  the  unskilled  labor  of 
the  country —  mongrel,  all  of  it.  The  trade  unions, 
which  ought  to  safe  guard  the  interests  of  labor, 
are  largely  controlled  by  foreigners,  who  earn 
their  salaries  by  precipitating  strikes,  to  level 
down  instead  of  up.  Lowered  wages  drive  women 
and  children  to  manual  labor,  in  order  to  eke  out 
a  livelihood.  European  conditions  of  industrial 
serfdom  thus  tend  to  reproduction  in  America. 

Our  pauper  and  criminal  statistics  bear  appal¬ 
ling  witness  to  the  folly  of  admitting  to  this 
country  the  most  incapable  and  irresponsible 
flotsam  and  jetsam  of  Europe.  The  census  of 
1890  shows  that  about  three-fourths  of  the 
paupers  in  our  almshouses  are  of  foreign  birth, 
or  immediate  descent.  Nor  does  the  burden  end 
here.  The  proportion  is  the  same  in  the  insane 
asylums.  Our  Boards  of  Charities  everywhere 


unrestricted  immigration.  87 

groan  under  the  intolerable  incubus.  American 
charity  is  at  once  burdened  and  abused.  If  we 
turn  to  criminal  statistics  substantially  the 
same  results  stare  us  in  the  face.  Although  com¬ 
prising,  with  their  offspring  in  the  first  generation, 
but  one-third  of  the  population,  these  immigrants 
contribute  more  than  half  of  the  eonvidts  in  our 
prisons  and  penitentiaries. 

The  educational  problem  is  similarly  embar¬ 
rassed.  A  large  proportion  of  the  foreigners 
amongst  us  can  not  read  or  write  their  native 
language,  and  24.98  per  cent,  of  them  have  no 
knowledge  of  English.  Thus  ignorant  them¬ 
selves,  they  can  hardly  be  expedted  to  be  very 
solicitous  regarding  the  schooling  of  their  chil¬ 
dren.  Those  who  are  better  informed  are  apt  to 
be  clannish.  They  retain  their  prejudices  of 
race  and  creed,  and  demand  schools  at  the  public 
expense  which  shall  perpetuate  differences  of 
feeling  or  tongue  that  destroy  the  homogeneity 
of  American  citizenship.  Our  free-school  system 
aims  at  two  things,  viz.,  the  fitting  of  the  children 
of  the  commonwealth  to  earn  an  honest  living, 
and  their  preparation  for  the  fundamental  duties 
of  citizenship.  Any  interference  with  these  ends 
is  inhuman  and  unpatriotic,  and  should  be  opposed 
and  stopped  by  the  whole  energy  and  force  of 
the  national  will. 

The  fadts  which  we  have  reviewed  have  their 


88 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


national  application.  The  importation,  and 
especially  the  deportation  by  foreign  governments, 
of  undesirable  elements,  lowers  the  tone  of  the 
country  ■ —  may  fatally  lower  it.  Ignorance,  crime, 
and  pauperism  can  not  form  the  foundation  of  a 
nation  which  rests  in  its  conception  and  contin¬ 
uance  upon  intelligence,  obedience  to  law  and 
industry.  The  elective  franchise  is  imperiled  not 
only  by  criminal  and  pauper  voters,  but  almost 
equally  by  ignorant  voters.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  foreigners  have  a  poor  opinion  of  the  fran¬ 
chise,  when  we  permit  them  to  be  ground  out 
through  the  mill  of  naturalization  into  a  grist  of 
voters  while  ignorant  of  the  constitution  and 
language  of  the  country  ?  Nay,  in  some  States 
they  are  enfranchised  by  a  brief  residence, 
without  naturalization  !  And  this  while  we 
insist  upon  it  that  no  American  youth  shall 
vote  under  the  age  of  21,  and  no  woman  shall 
vote  at  any  age  !  The  laws  governing  the  fran¬ 
chise  should  be  amended  to  provide  that  no 
foreigner  shall  vote  until  he  has  resided  in  the 
country  at  least  ten  years  ;  nor  then  unless  he  has 
qualified  himself  to  read  and  write  in  the  lan¬ 
guage  in  which  our  legislation  is  recorded  and  in 
which  he  must  respond  in  every  court  of  justice. 

Happily,  public  thought  is  now  turned  to  this 
whole  subject.  There  is  a  rapidly  growing  sen¬ 
timent  in  favor  of  a  reconstruction  of  the  laws  of 


UNRESTRICTED  IMMIGRATION. 


89 


immigration.  Upon  the  following  points  there  is 
large  agreement  :  the  total  exclusion  of  the  unfit ; 
the  admission  only  of  persons  who  have  some  vis¬ 
ible  means  of  self-support  ;  the  return  of  those  who, 
after  landing,  are  discovered  to  have  been  crimi¬ 
nals  or  paupers  or  anarchists  in  their  native  land  ; 
a  declaration  on  reaching  America  of  the  intention 
or  non-intention  011  the  part  of  the  immigrant  to 
become  a  citizen  ;  and  the  lengthening  of  the 
period  of  residence  necessary  before  naturalization, 
with  the  demanding  of  some  knowledge  of  the 
English  language,  together  with  a  denial  of  the 
right  to  vote  until  the  consummation  of  the  adt  of 
naturalization. 

Verily,  here  is  a  vast  and  needy  field  for 
Christian  citizens  to  labor  in  ! 


IV. 


THE  EIQUOR  APPETITE  AND  TRAFFIC. 

In  the  rank  soil  of  the  three  capital  abuses  de- 
scibed  in  the  three  preceding  chapters,  grow  the 
three  great  special  vices  —  drunkenness,  licen¬ 
tiousness,  and  gambling,  to  which  we  devote  the 
three  chapters  that  follow. 

Commencing  with  the  first  of  these  master- 
vices,  we  emphasize  the  fabt  that  races,  like 
individuals,  have  special  proclivities.  Climate, 
heredity,  and  environment  are  the  three  strands 
in  this  cable  of  predisposition.  The  tropics,  for 
example,  heat  the  blood  and  breed  languor. 
Tropical  races,  therefore,  find  their  bane  in  idle¬ 
ness  and  licentiousness.  The  frigid  and  temper¬ 
ate  zones,  on  the  other  hand,  incite  to  gluttony 
and  drunkenness.  ‘  ‘  If  you  would  know  what 
are  the  fundamental  traits  of  a  race,"  remarks 
Carlyle,  “  catch  it  and  study  it  before  Christian¬ 
ity  and  civilization  have  tamed  it."  Look  at  our 
race  in  the  light  of  this  maxim.  Tacitus  de¬ 
scribes  the  ancient  Britons  as  having  ravenous 
stomachs,  filled  with  meat  and  cheese,  heated 
with  strong  drink.  Taine,  in  his  “  History  of 
English  Literature,”  confirms  the  Roman  from 
90 


THE  LIQUOR  APPETITE  AND  TRAFFIC.  9 1 


other  sources.  And  the  Venerable  Bede  avouches 
the  statements  of  both.  The  greatest  of  Ameri¬ 
can  orators,  summarizing  the  classic  authorities, 
shows  that  our  German  ancestors,  before  they 
streamed  out  of  their  primeval  life,  conceived  of 
heaven  as  a  drunken  revel,  and  regarded  the 
drinking  of  blood  diluted  with  wine  as  a  foretaste 
of  Paradise.  What  is  bred  in  the  bone  will  come 
out  in  the  flesh.  England,  Scotland,  Wales, 
Ireland,  German)'',  and  North  America  are  the 
living  witnesses.  Drunkeness  is  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Celtic  blood. 

Heredity  cooperates  with  climate  in  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  this  taint.  Recent  biologists  have  shown 
that  pauperism,  criminality,  insanity,  and  similar 
tendencies,  are  transmitted,  and  can  be  produced 
with  as  much  certainty  as  plants  and  animals  are 
bred  and  changed.  Inebriety  comes  under  the 
same  category.  It  has  been  recognized  as  heredi¬ 
tary  for  ages.  Take  any  one  hundred  inebriates. 
Forty  per  cent,  will  be  found  to  be  the  children  of 
parents  who  are  either  excessive  or  moderate 
drinkers.  Of  the  remainder,  20  per  cent,  inherit 
their  appetite  front  grandparents,  more  frequently 
on  the  maternal  side,  the  heredity  having  thus 
skipped  a  generation;  another  20  per  cent,  are  the 
descendants  of  consumptive,  epileptic,  or  feeble¬ 
minded  ancestors  —  brain  and  nerve-exhausted 
persons.  Only  20  per  cent,  are  free  from  ancestral 


92 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


taint.  What  a  commentary  on  the  solemn  words 
of  the  decalogue,  that  God  visits  “  the  iniquity  of 
the  fathers  upon  the  children  unto  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  !  ’  *  And  what  a  motive  this  tre¬ 
mendous  law  presents  to  parents  to  live  soberly ! 

The  physiological  explanation  of  these  effects 
is,  that  liquor  congests  the  cerebral  blood-vessels 
and  thus  causes  them  to  press  upon  the  delicate 
tissues  of  the  brain,  producing  confusion  of  ideas 
and  stupor.  When  the  stimulative  fever  subsides 
after  the  partial  elimination  of  the  poison,  the  brain 
is  left  weak.  By  frequent  repititions  of  alcoholic 
congestion  the  membranes  of  the  brain  become 
thickened  and  distorted  —  conditions  which  pass 
down  to  descendants.  The  immediate  victims  and 
their  unhappy  progeny  are  thus  inclined  to  apo¬ 
plexy,  and  disinclined  to  continued  intellectual 
effort. 

Climate  and  heredity  are  reenforced  by  environ¬ 
ment.  Inhabiting  this  zone,  and  with  such  blood 
in  our  veins,  we  have  created  an  environment  of 
temptation.  The  great  centers  of  population  are 
honeycombed  with  legalized  dram-shops.  Like 
the  shipwrecked  sailor  who,  when  he  saw  a  gal¬ 
lows,  thanked  God  that  he  had  been  washed  ashore 
in  a  Christian  country,  we  recognize  in  the  grog- 
gery  a  distinctive  symbol  of  modern  civilization. 
Long  after  all  honest  places  are  shut  and  barred, 
the  groggery  flames  out  to  entice  and  engulf — a 


the:  eiquor  appetite:  and  traffic.  93 

“blazing  lighthouse  of  hell.”  It  is  the  most 
obtrusive  feature  of  city  life,  and  is  only  less  fre¬ 
quent  and  frequented  in  villages  and  hamlets. 

As  though  climate,  and  racial  inheritance,  and 
environment  were  not  enough,  chemistry  invents 
a  new  devil,  alcohol,  and  makes  it  so  cheap 
that  anybody  may  have  a  familiar  spirit.  The 
Roman  legions  that  trod  the  world  into  vassalage 
had  no  stimulant  stronger  than  vinegar  and  water. 
To-day  an  incompetent  can  earn  in  a  forenoon  the 
means  of  getting  and  keeping  drunk. 

fL  he  stupendous  outcome  of  the  liquor  appetite 
is  the  liquor  traffic  —  cause  and  effect  combined. 
Engaged  in  this  nefarious  calling  as  proprietors, 
employes  or  dependents,  are  1,397,500  persons  — 
all  males  and  voters.  The  saloons  they  conduct 
number  200,000.  Capital  to  the  amount  of 
$1,000,000,000  is  direCtly  invested  in  the  trade. 
Another  $1,000,000,000  is  indirectly  interested. 
The  annual  liquor  bill  of  the  United  States  is  also 
$1,000,000,000.  We  send  up  in  tobacco-smoke 
every  year  $600,000,000;  and  spend  for  bread  in 
a  twelve  month  $500,000,000  ;  for  clothes  a  like 
amount;  for  meat,  $300,000,000;  for  shoes,  $200-, 
000,000;  and  $100,000,000  for  schools.  There  is 
widespread  complaint  nowadays  of  hard  times. 
Would  not  times  be  easier  if  the  capital  direCtly 
and  indirectly  employed  in  the  liquor  traffic,  to¬ 
gether  with  the  sum  annually  expended  on  liquor, 


94 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


were  directed  into  the  till  of  honest  business  ? 12 
This  inquiry  is  all  the  more  pertinent  when  we 
reflect  that  we  lavish  hundreds  of  millions  a  year 
in  policing  the  consequences  of  rum;  and,  what  is 
infinitely  more  wasteful  and  wicked,  create  crime, 
70  per  cent,  of  which  comes  from  this  traffic,  de¬ 
grade  40,000  men  and  women  every  year  from 
lives  of  industry  to  homes  in  the  penitentiary,  and 
distribute  an  annual  quota  of  319,000  idiots 
through  the  country,  each  of  whom  bears  the 
brand  of  the  saloon. 

Why  is  not  this  curse  of  curses  summarily  dealt 
with  by  the  religion  and  law  of  America  ?  Because 
it  is  a  colossal,  defiant  oligarchy,  possessing,  like 
Milton’s  Satan , — 

“  Unconquerable  will, 

And  study  of  revenge,  immortal  hate 
And  courage  never  to  submit  nor  yield;  ” 

because  it  is  intrenched  in  the  appetite  of  millions, 
in  the  greed  of  other  millions,  in  the  habitual  tol¬ 
eration  of  forty-five  States,  in  the  ambition  of 
politicians;  and  because  it  is  a  thoroughly  or¬ 
ganized  and  disciplined  political  power,  with  rami¬ 
fications  in  ever)7  primary  district  in  the  Union. 

As  a  political  evil  it  is  impossible  to  over-esti¬ 
mate  the  liquor  traffic.  Taking  advantage  of  the 
indifference  of  the  better  classes  towards  the  pri¬ 
mary  and  the  ballot-box,  of  the  spoils  system,  and 
of  the  presence  of  immigrants  who  bring  here  the 


THE  LIQUOR  APPETITE  AND  TRAFFIC.  95 

drinking  habits  of  Europe,  it  goes  into  politics, 
turns  every  saloon  into  a  center  of  organized  in¬ 
fluence,  makes  and  unmakes  laws,  and  law-givers, 
and  interpreters,  corrupts  juries,  and  terrorizes 
70,000,000  of  people. 

Statistics  show  that  75  per  cent,  of  the  brewers 
and  maltsters  in  the  United  States  are  of  foreign 
birth,  while  a  large  percentage  of  the  remainder 
are  of  foreign  parentage.  Of  the  dealers  in  spirit¬ 
uous  liquors,  63  per  cent,  are  foreign-born,  with  a 
larger  percentage  of  the  balance  of  foreign  parent¬ 
age.  In  the  North  Atlantic  division  of  the  Union 

—  from  Maine  to  and  including  Pennsylvania  — 
there  is  one  liquor  dealer  to  every  64  voters;  in 
the  South  Atlantic  division  —  from  Delaware  to 
and  including  Florida  —  one  to  every  117;  in  the 
North  Central  division  —  from  Ohio  to  and  includ¬ 
ing  Kansas  —  one  to  every  70;  in  the  South  Cen¬ 
tral  —  from  Kentucky  to  and  including  Arkansas 

—  one  to  every  105;  and  in  the  Western  division 

—  from  Montana  to  and  including  California  — 
one  to  every  39.  And  each  dealer  is  a  political 
manager  and  magnate,  holding  the  balance  of 
power,  belonging  to  any  party  which  most  favors 
his  interests,  and  assuring  success  to  that  party. 

A  bad  matter  is  made  worse  by  the  fa<5t  that 
European  syndicates  are  largely  and  increasingly 
interested  in  the  American  liquor  traffic.  Hence, 
American  politics  are  measurably  controlled  not 


96 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


only  by  foreigners  here,  but  also  by  foreigners 
abroad.  Are  we  any  longer,  then,  a  self-governed 
people  ? 

At  the  start  the  whisky  trade  in  this  country 
had  no  organization.  It  was  conducted  by  a  group 
of  traders  who  sold  liquor  with  other  and  more 
honest  commodities  over  the  counters  of  groceries 
and  country  shops,  or  in  the  tap-rooms  of  taverns. 
And  drinking  was  universal.  Cronies  ‘  ‘  treated  ’ 
one  another  in  the  tavern;  wine  sparkled  in  the 
decanter  on  the  sideboard  in  every  home  ;  even 
parsons  got  tipsy  in  orthodox  fashion  at  religious 
conventions,  and  were  more  spirituous  than  spirit¬ 
ual.  A  remarkable  change  in  public  sentiment 
has  made  nearly  all  clergymen  total  abstainers, 
banished  the  decanter  from  private  tables,  driven 
it  from  groceries  and  country  .shops,  and  stamped 
the  traffic  as  disreputable.  To  counteract  this 
revolution,  the  liquor  dealers  have  been  com¬ 
pelled  to  organize.  Their  organization  is  really 
a  tribute  to  the  continental  strength  of  the  reform 
movement. 

The  ostensible  occasion  of  the  liquor  federation 
was  the  Internal  Revenue  A<5t  of  1862,  which  lev¬ 
ied  a  heavy  tax  on  domestic  liquors  to  help  meet 
the  expenses  of  the  civil  war.  Kvery  year  since 
then  has  contributed  its  quota  towards  a  more 
effective  organization,  until  whisky  now  lords  it 
as  that  deposed  majesty,  slavery,  used  to  do. 


the  liquor  appetite  and  traffic.  97 

The  trade,  too,  is  at  present  carried  on  in  places 
distinctively  devoted  to  it,  and  called  “saloons.” 
By  common  acknowledgment  they  are  manufac¬ 
tories  of  crime  and  criminals,  try  sting-places  of 
vice,  allies  of  the  brothel,  breeders  of  poverty, 
dealers  at  wholesale  and  retail  in  misery,  the  de¬ 
spair  of  law  and  order,  the  raison  d'etre  of  police 
and  prison,  a  chronic  assault  upon  property  and  life 
—  organized  anarchy  !  It  is  fast  coming  to  be  felt 
that  there  can  be  no  peace  in  this  country  until 
the  saloons  are  repressed  and  placarded  ‘  ‘  For 
rent.” 

But  before  the  saloons  can  be  reached,  the  rum 
power  behind  them  and  operating  them  must  be 
trampled  down  and  trampled  out.  Who  can  be 
relied  upon  to  do  this  .save  Christian  citizens? 
Can  the  existing  political  parties  ?  They  are  in  a 
guilty  partnership  with  it.  Can  State  legislatures  ? 
They  are  filled  with  its  creatures.  Can  the  Na¬ 
tional  Congress  and  the  President  of  the  United 
States  ?  They  are  elected  with  an  express  under¬ 
standing  that  they  are  to  keep  hands  off.  If  any¬ 
thing  is  done,  therefore,  it  must  be  done  by  Chris¬ 
tian  citizens  acting  outside  of  existing  parties, 
framing  drastic  measures  through  new  legisla¬ 
tures;  and  sending  to  Washington  congressmen 
and  presidents  pledged  to  treat  this  insurrection 
against  every  legitimate  interest  of  the  Republic, 
as  the  first  Congress  and  the  first  President  treated 


98 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZKNSHIP. 


the  whisky  rebellion,  in  1794  Pennsylvania 
take  it  by  the  throat  and  choke  the  life  out  of  it. 

As  to  the  plan  of  campaign  there  is  as  yet,  un¬ 
happily,  no  consensus  of  opinion,  The  pioblem 
is  vast  and  intricate,  and  suggests  as  many  solu¬ 
tions  as  it  has  phases.  Temperance  workers  must 
practise  charity  among  themselves.  Let  there  be 
no  more  reading  out  of  the  ranks  of  those  who  do 
not  mutter  a  given  .shibboleth.  Any  and  every 
contribution  of  any  and  every  thoughtful  student 
of  the  question  should  be  welcomed.  ‘  ‘  Where 
no  counsel  is,”  saith  Holy  Writ,  “the  people 
fall ;  but  in  the  multitude  of  counselors  there  is 
safety.  ’  ’  Out  of  a  comparison  of  views  will  come 

a  final  and  successful  plan. 

Meantime,  some  things  are  already  clear.  Pal¬ 
liatives  are  not  remedies.  License,  for  instance, 
is  a  world-old  and  world-wide  failure.  The  more 
it  is  thought  of  the  less  it  is  thought  of.  Were 
it  successful  it  would  yet  be  hateful  to  the  Chris¬ 
tian  conscience.  Bouvier,  in  his  Law  Diction¬ 
ary,”  defines  license  as  “  a  right  given  by  some 
competent  authority  to  do  an  adt  which  without 
such  authority  would  be  illegal.”  License,  there¬ 
fore,  puts  the  vState  in  the  attitude  either  of  deny¬ 
ing  the  sinfulness  of  the  liquor  traffic,  or  else  of 
compounding  a  felony.  The  thief — it  jails  him. 
The  murderer  —  him  it  hangs.  But  the  thief- 
maker,  the  manufacturer  of  murderers,  it  licenses. 


THK  LIQUOR  APPRTITK  AND  TRAFFIC.  99 

Thus  with  one  hand  it  strangles  the  vi<5tim,  and 
with  the  other  protects  the  vidtimizer.  Will  not 
the  future  Tacitus,  when  he  looks  back  to  paint 
our  times,  count  this  as  the  most  curious  of  histor¬ 
ical  monstrosities  ? 

In  the  forum  of  conscience  it  is  without  valid 
excuse.  Is  it  said  that  a  license  is  substantial^  a 
tax  ?  The  answer  is,  that  a  tax  is  a  levy  imposed 
on  the  members  of  society  to  pay  the  expenses  of 
a  common  government;  a  license  is  the  granting 
of  permission  to  do  what  it  would  otherwise  be 
unlawful  to  do.  A  tax  requires  something  to  be 
given;  a  license  allows  something  to  be  done.  A 
tax  is  for  the  public  welfare;  a  license  is  for  the 
benefit  of  an  individual.  There  is  no  analogy.  Is 
it  pleaded  that  since  the  evil  exists  it  were  better 
to  regulate  it  by  a  license  than  suffer  it  to  go  at 
will  ?  The  reply  is  that  the  same  reasoning  would 
lead  to  the  licensing  of  all  existing  evils.  Rape 
exists,  and  arson,  and  murder  —  shall  these,  too, 
be  licensed  ?  If  not,  why  not  ?  The  State  which 
licenses  a  sin  becomes  a  partner  in  the  guilt,  if  not 
in  the  profit.  Is  it  urged  that  these  scruples  would 
deprive  the  community  of  a  fat  revenue  ?  The 
response  is,  that  it  is  an  authentic  statistic  that  for 
every  dollar  taken  in  by  license,  $20  are  expended 
to  take  care  of  the  guilty  consequences.  Is  license 
economical  ? 

What  is  called  the  Gothenburg  system  is  noth- 


IOO 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


in g  but  restrictive  license.  The  name  comes 
from  the  Swedish  seaport  of  Gothenburg,  where,  in 
1864,  to  repress  the  terrible  evils  of  drunkenness, 
the  city  council  annulled  all  outstanding  licenses, 
created  a  company  —  Bolag  —  and  empowered  it 
to  operate  a  limited  number  of  saloons,  made  over 
into  restaurants,  in  which  liquor  should  be  drank 
only  with  meals;  to  license  a  few  groceries  and 
private  wine-merchants;  and  to  pay  over  into  the 
city  treasury  the  accruing  profits.  It  is  perhaps 
the  most  honest  license  scheme  ever  devised. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  open  to  all  the  ethical  objec¬ 
tions  of  any  other  method  of  license.  It  legalizes 
what  God’s  law  has  declared  to  be  illegal.  It 
gives  respectability  to  an  essentially  disreputable 
trade.  And  it  is  a  failure.  Town  after  town, 
after  patient  trial,  has  voted  it  out  and  replaced  it 
with  prohibition  —  the  result  of  persistent  agita¬ 
tion,  aided  by  woman  suffrage,  which-  prevails  in 
Sweden.13 

So  with  the  (in)famous  South  Carolina  plan; 
which  is  only  a  modification  of  the  Gothenburg 
scheme.  While  making  the  State  a  colossal  liquor 
trafficker,  it,  too,  stands  before  the  country  as  a 
self- convicted  failure.  When  men  make  a  juggle 
and  call  it  justice,  the  fraud  is  sure  to  appear  in 
the  results. 

License,  then,  in  any  and  every  form,  may  be 
eliminated  from  the  list  of  remedial  agencies.  It 


THE  EIQUOR  APPETITE  AND  TRAFFIC.  IOI 

lingers  superfluous  as  a  makeshift  while  we  await 
a  specific.  Every  church  in  America,  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  has  denounced  it  as  “vicious  in 
principle  and  powerless  as  a  remedy.  ”  “  Over  the 
unholy  door  of  the  liquor  traffic  is  written  Dante’s 
motto  of  the  Inferno: — 

“All  hope  abandon,  ye  who  enter  here!  ’’ 

Christian  citizens  begin  to  understand  that  it 
must  be  met  in  its  own  aggressive  spirit.  There 
is  a  world  of  philosophy  in  Hamlet' s  reply  to 
Laertes\ — 

“  Nay,  and  thou  ’It  mouth, 

I  ’ll  rant,  as  well  as  thou.’’ 

Charles  Sumner,  in  pleading  for  the  arming  of 
the  blacks  during  the  rebellion,  exclaimed:  “We 
must  not  only  carry  the  war  into  Africa  —  we 
must  carry  Africa  into  the  war.  ’  ’  Just  .so  to-day; 
we  must  not  only  fight  the  liquor  traffic  —  we  must 
annihilate  it. 


V. 


THE  SOCIAL,  EVIL. 

There  is  one  sin  which  has  ever  been,  and  is 
now,  frightfully  prevalent;  which  is  the  chronic 
disturber  of  social  life;  of  which  the  newspapers 
are  full;  with  which  the  courts  are  forever  deal¬ 
ing;  which  the  Scriptures  devote  more  attention 
to  than  is  given  to  almost  any  other  theme,  and 
which  they  blast  with  Divine  lightning;  but  which 
the  pulpit,  the  school,  and  the  home  seldom  touch; 
viz.,  the  social  evil. 

The  reasons  for  this  reticence  are  obvious.  The 
subjedt  is  delicate.  It  is,  therefore,  difficult. 
There  is  danger  lest  we  teach  the  vice  in  condemn¬ 
ing  it,  and  suggest  it  in  the  very  endeavor  to  make 
it  infamous.  But  the  difficulty  is  no  excuse  for  the 
silence.  Whatever  the  intention,  a  conspiracy  of 
silence  is  usually  a  conspiracy  of  sin.  A  mur¬ 
mured  hush-a-by  is  right  in  a  nursery  and  wrong 
in  a  circle  of  crime.  Many  things  are  difficult 
from  which  we  are  nevertheless  not  excused.  In 
war  it  is  difficult  to  defeat  the  enemy;  yet  the  at¬ 
tempt  must  be  made,  or  the  campaign  must  be 
abandoned.  In  social  life  .some  duty  is  difficult; 


102 


THE  SOCIAL  EVIL. 


103 


ought  it  to  be  dodged?  A  sin  so  common,  so 
monstrous,  and  so  continuously  thundered  against 
in  the  Bible,  as  the  social  evil  is,  must  not  be  per¬ 
mitted  to  skulk  off  and  sneak  out  of  sight  because 
it  is  difficult  of  treatment.  It  was  not  pleasant 
for  the  angels  to  denounce  the  judgment  of  God 
against  Sodom,  yet  they  did  not  hesitate.  It  was 
not  easy  for  the  three  Hebrew  worthies  to  enter  the 
fiery  furnace  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  but  they  did  not 
refuse.  It  was  not  congenial  to  St.  Paul  to  re¬ 
prove  the  Corinthian  Church  —  organized  by  him¬ 
self —  for  drunkenness  and  wantonness;  neverthe¬ 
less  he  delivered  the  rebuke.  That  ancient  prophet 
who  once  tried  to  run  away  from  a  difficult  task 
was  not  so  successful  as  to  encourage  imitation. 
Jonah  brought  up  in  a  more  unpleasant  situation 
than  the  one  he  sought  to  avoid  could  possibly 
have  been.  He  turned  the  stomach  of  the  whale, 
which  threw  him  up  ;  and  after  all  he  had  to  go  to 
Nineveh.  How  much  better  had  he  gone  by  some 
other  route  than  by  the  way  of  the  whale’s  belly. 

The  essence  of  the  social  evil  is  that  it  trans¬ 
gresses  the  Seventh  Commandment — “  Thoushalt 
not  commit  adultery.”  This  is  a  mandate  based 
alike  on  physical  and  moral  considerations.  It  is 
intended  to  conserve  the  individual  and  society. 
It  carries  with  it  the  common  consent  of  nations 
and  ages. 

For  impurity  is  a  kind  of  sacrilege.  It  converts 


104 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


that  which  is  sacred  to  a  profane  use.  What  says 
St.  Paul  ?  ‘  ‘  Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the 

temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  ”  Now,  if  it  was  sac¬ 
rilegious  to  turn  the  temple  on  Mount  Zion,  which 
was  composed  of  wood  and  stone,  to  inferior  and 
secular  uses;  if  our  Savior’s  anger  burned  hot 
within  Him,  and  found  significant  outward  ex¬ 
pression  when  He  saw  the  sanbtuary  turned  into 
a  market,  and  the  house  of  God  made  a  den  of 
thieves;  how  much  more  heinous  is  it  to  transform 
a  living  temple  of  the  eternal  God,  even  the  body, 
into  a  house  of  prostitution.  And  the  apostle 
deems  this  sacrilege  so  great  an  aggravation  of  the 
sinfulness  of  impurity  that  he  says  again:  ‘  ‘  If  any 
man  defile  the  temple  of  God,  him  shall  God 
destroy:  for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  which 
temple  ye  are.  ’  ’ 

In  the  Jewish  temple  whose  sandtity  Jesus  vin¬ 
dicated  by  scourging  forth  those  who  desecrated 
it,  there  were  certain  secular  uses  which  were  con¬ 
stantly  carried  on  without  sacrilege;  such  as  the 
preparation  and  consumption  of  food  by  those  in 
charge  of  it,  the  slaughter  of  cattle  for  the  sacri¬ 
fices,  and  the  general  household  conduct  of  the 
priests.  In  like  manner  there  are  certain  uses  of 
our  appetites  and  passions  which  are  innocent  and 
permissible.  When  the  bodily  propensities  are 
engaged  in  a  legal  partnership,  at  a  proper  time, 
and  for  ordained  ends,  their  activity  is  legitimate. 


the  sociae  evil. 


105 

In  this  case  the  temple  of  the  body  is  not  defiled. 
It  is  impurity  —  that  is,  a  wrong  use,  in  a  forbid¬ 
den  partnership,  for  wicked  ends,  at  stolen  hours 
—  that  is  sacrilegious.  Here  is  a  plain  distinction 
which  all  should  mark  and  may  observe. 

Impurity  does  not  stop  at  sacrilege  ;  it  involves 
the  moral  murder  of  two  souls  in  one  aCt.  ‘ 1  Other 
sinners,”  observes  old  Dr.  Watts,  “can  perish 
singly.  The  swearer  damns  none  by  his  oath 
save  himself,  and  although  he  may  curse  others 
to  the  bottomless  pit,  yet  shall  he  descend  thither 
alone.  The  drunkard  drowns  but  his  own  soul 
in  perdition.  Even  the  murderer  kills  the  body 
of  his  victim  only.  And  so,  though  their  wicked¬ 
ness  may  prompt  them  to  draw  in  associates  — 
for  all  sin  is  social  and  loves  company  —  yet  all 
other  sinners  may  be  solitarily  wicked  and  perish 
by  themselves.  But  this  sin  necessarily  requires 
partnership  in  guilt,  and  involves  another  in  the 
same  condemnation.”  Physiologists  tell  us  that 
printed  on  the  retina  of  a  murdered  man’s  eye  is 
the  image  of  the  murderer  on  whom  he  last  looked 
in  life.  How  dreadful  to  be  shut  up  through  a 
conscious  eternity  in  the  company  of  those  whom 
we  have  brought  down  to  spiritual  death,  and 
who,  pointing  at  us  a  skeleton  forefinger,  taunt 
us  with  ‘  ‘  the  deep  damnation  of  their  taking  off  ’  ’  ! 

The  consequences  of  this  transgression  are 
frightful.  There  is  no  other  offense  .so  debasing. 


io6 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


When  purity  is  gone,  manhood  is  gone,  woman¬ 
hood  is  gone.  The  image  of  God  is  turned  into 
a  human  animal.  The  spirit,  the  rightful  master 
of  the  body,  is  degraded  to  be  a  hewer  of  wood 
and  drawer  of  water  to  the  scavengers,  who  come 
up  out  of  the  sewers  of  the  physical  nature,  to 
strut  as  lords  over  a  heritage  of  woe.  The  eyes 
are  now  furtive,  the  old  honest  look  is  lost.  What 
was  a  man  or  woman  is  now  a  sneak.  The  days 
are  full  of  fears,  the  nights  of  jealousies.  The 
hours  burn  with  affront  and  palpitate  with  terror 
of  discovery. 

Moreover,  the  social  evil  entails  the  worst 
physical  results.  Look  around.  Observe  the 
sharp  contrasts.  There  goes  a  man  of  the  no¬ 
blest  development  —  fine  cut  features,  frank  and 
open  look,  imperial  dome  of  thought  ;  — 

“  A  combination,  and  a  form,  indeed, 

Where  every  god  did  seem  to  .set  his  seal, 

To  give  the  world  assurance  of  a  man.” 

But  who  is  this  following  in  his  track,  under 
the  same  sky,  surrounded  by  the  same  institu¬ 
tions?  See  the  pinched  features,  the  stunted 
form,  the  villainous  countenance.  “  Look  here, 
upon  this  picture,  and  on  this.”  Behold  unclean¬ 
ness  worked  out,  and  bearing  the  visible  stamp  of 
violated  physical  law  and  moral  neglecd.  Habit¬ 
ual  impurity  steeps  the  very  senses  it  seeks  to 
gratify  in  unresponsive  apathy,  and  soaks  the 


THE  SOCIAL,  EVIL,. 


107 


body  in  the  slump  of  disease.  The  hospitals  are 
fetid  with  such  wrecks,  to  whom  death  would 
be  welcome  —  were  it  not  the  gate  to  hell. 

Closely  connected  with  the  social  evil,  and  a 
prolific  feeder  of  it,  is  the  maintenance  by  society 
of  a  double  standard  of  morality  for  the  two  sexes. 
Tradition  and  custom  encourage  men  to  do  what 
women  are  ostracized  for  doing.  Prostitute  is 
defined  in  the  dictionaries  as  a  noun  of  the  femi¬ 
nine  gender  —  proof  of  this  looseness.  For  a  male 
prostitute  is  as  common  and  as  bad  as  a  female, 
and  has  less  excuse.  Women  themselves,  misled 
by  ages  of  training  in  subjection,  condone  in  men 
what  they  condemn  in  one  another.  They  marry 
libertines  who  would  themselves  refuse  to  wed 
women  guilty  of  aCts  which  they  habitually  com¬ 
mit.  And  that  mysterious  human  omnipotence 
called  ‘ 1  society  ’  ’  simpers,  coughs  under  its  hand¬ 
kerchief,  and  says,  “  Men  will  be  men,  and 
must  sow  wild  oats.”  When  a  woman  sins  in 
the  same  way,  she  is  cursed  and  stoned  by  both 
sexes. 

“  When  I  said  to  women  in  France  and  Italy,” 
remarks  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard,  “that  I  was 
confident  a  large  majority  of  the  men  in  my  own 
social  circle  in  America  were  as  chaste  as  women, 
the  statement  was  invariably  received  with  shouts 
of  laughter,  and  some  such  pitying  comment  as 
' L* Anmicaine  has  clearly  spent  her  life  with 


io8 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


books  ;  she  does  not  know  the  world.  ’  ’  ’  Mon¬ 
taigne  said  that  there  were  no  virtuous  men  in 
France  in  his  day.  Women  are  skeptical  regard¬ 
ing  male  virtue  in  any  day  or  country.  They 
accept  the  absence  of  it  as  a  matter  of  course, 
while  holding  themselves,  and  permitting  men  to 
hold  them,  to  stern  accountability. 

Not  only  are  men  known  to  be  lewd  welcomed 
in  decent  social  circles, —  in  Europe  the  social 
evil  is  licensed,  and  a  stated  medical  examination 
of  the  women  engaged  in  the  traffic  is  made,  so 
that  the  male  partner  in  a  dual  sin  may  be  pro¬ 
tected  from  nature’s  penalty,  and  the  female  part¬ 
ner  be  left  to  bear  it  all.  Thus  does  society  make 
it  easy  and  safe  for  man  to  sin,  and  shift  the  crush¬ 
ing  burden  on  the  shoulders  of  the  weaker  sex. 
How  chivalric  man-made  laws  are  !  Attempts 
have  been  made  again  and  again  to  introduce  this 
custom  into  America,  with  only  partial  success 
as  yet.  There  is  still  too  much  of  the  Puritan 
spirit  in  the  country  to  tolerate  such  a  gigantic 
defiance  of  God  and  such  a  degradation  of  woman¬ 
hood.  It  was  this  feature  of  the  social  evil  which 
first  attracted  the  attention  of  Miss  Willard  to  the 
whole  subject,  and  led  her,  like  a  new  Peter  the 
Hermit,  to  preach  a  crusade  which  is  overcoming 
the  silence  and  reserve  of  centuries,  and  stirring 
Christendom  to  loftier  thinking  and  more  becom¬ 
ing  conduCt.  “In  the  year  1869,”  she  says, 


THE  SOCIAE  EVIE. 


109 


“while  studying  in  Paris,  I  used  often  to  see  pass¬ 
ing  along  the  streets  great  closed  wagons,  covered 
with  black.  When  I  inquired  of  my  landlady 
the  explanation  of  these  somber  vehicles,  she 
answered  sorrowfully,  ‘  It  is  the  demi-monde, 
who  go  to  be  examined.  ’  I  then  learned  for  the 
first  time  that  in  Paris  fallen  women  have  a  legal 
‘permit’  to  carry  on  what  is  recognized  as  a 
business,  but  must  remain  secluded  in  their  houses 
at  certain  hours,  must  avoid  certain  streets,  and 
must  go  once  a  week,  under  police  escort,  to  the 
dispensary  for  examination  and  certificate  that 
they  are  free  from  contagious  disease.  Always, 
after  that,  those  awful  wagons  seemed  to  me  to 
form  the  most  heart-breaking  funeral  procession 
that  ever  Christian  women  watched  with  tear- 
dimmed  eyes.  If  I  were  asked  why  there  has 
come  about  such  a  revolution  in  public  thought 
that  I  have  gained  courage  to  speak  of  things  once 
unlawful  to  be  told,  my  answer  is,  ‘  Because  law¬ 
makers  tried  to  import  the  black  wagon  of  Paris 
to  England  and  America,  and  Anglo-Saxon  women 
rose  in  rebellion.’  ’’ 

The  existence  of  the  double  standard  is  further 
evidenced  by  outrageous  statutes  —  which  might 
properly  be  entitled  laws  for  making  sedudlion  safe 
and  easy  for  men  —  prescribing  the  age  at  which 
a  girl  may,  in  case  of  seduction,  be  held  to  have 
consented  to  her  ruin.  And  what  is  this  age  of  con- 


I  IO 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


sent  ?  Surely  it  is  fixed  at  such  a  point  in  the  girl’s 
life  as  shall  insure  the  maturity  of  her  judgment 
and  the  certainty  of  her  knowledge  of  the  conse¬ 
quences?  In  some  States  of  this  Union  the  age 
of  consent  is  fixed  at  io  and  12  years  —  an  age,  in 
either  case,  when  a  girl  is  a  mere  child,  without 
experience,  and  hardly  with  a  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil.  She  can  not  inherit  or  dispose  of 
property  until  she  comes  of  age  ;  but  at  10  or 
12  she  may  consent  to  the  ruin  of  her  body  and 
her  soul  for  time  and  for  eternity!  Nay,  in  case 
of  her  sedudtion,  the  law  presupposes  her  con¬ 
sent  ;  makes  it  impossible  for  her  to  prove  the 
contrary  by  holding  that  a  child’s  testimony  shall 
not  be  put  in  evidence  unless  she  understands 
the  “nature  of  an  oath.’’  By  this  ingenious 
contrivance  the  ravisher,  whatever  his  age,  goes 
scot  free  ;  because  if  his  vidlim  is  under  10  or  12 
she  seldom  understands  the  nature  of  an  oath. 
Can  anything  more  diabolical  than  this  be  imag¬ 
ined?  We  borrowed  these  laws  from  England. 
The  French  code  puts  the  age  of  consent  at  15 
—  better  than  10  or  12,  but  absurdly  low.  In 
his  “  Moral  History  of  Women,”  Eegouve  re¬ 
marks  : 

“If  we  .should  be  told  that  there  exists  a  land 
where  chastity  is  set  at  so  high  a  price  among 
women  that  it  is  called  their  honor;  if  we  should 
be  told  that  the  loss  of  this  honor  brands  not  only 


THK  SOClAIy  E^VIIy. 


1 1 1 


the  guilty  one  but  her  family,  and  that  daughters 
have  been  put  to  death  by  their  fathers  for  this 
fault  alone;  if  it  should  be  added  that  this  error, 
when  the  woman  is  married,  will  bring  her  before 
the  courts;  if  she  is  a  servant,  will  cause  her  to 
be  expelled  from  her  place;  if  an  operative,  will 
often  expel  her  from  the  workshop;  if  she  is  rich, 
will  consign  her  to  celibacy  —  for  the  man  who 
should  dare  to  marry  her  would  be  accused  in  his 
turn  of  selling  himself;  if  we  should  be  told,  be¬ 
sides,  that  in  this  country  women  are  considered 
so  frivolous  in  mind  and  so  feeble  in  character  that 
they  remain  minors  during  the  whole  period  of 
their  marriage;  if  we  should  be  informed  that 
among  these  people  the  young  men  have  but  one 
aim  —  to  rob  women  of  their  treasure;  that  all, 
poor  and  rich,  handsome  and  plain,  plebeian  or 
patrician,  urged  some  by  sensuality,  some  by 
ennui ,  others  by  vanity,  throw,  themselves  into 
this  pursuit  like  bloodhounds  on  a  trail;  that,  in 
short,  by  a  singular  contrast,  the  same  people  who 
load  women  with  curses  when  they  yield,  elevate 
to  a  sort  of  heraldic  distinction  those  who  induce 
them  to  yield,  and  honor  their  success  with  a  title 
reserved  for  the  most  glorious  aCtions  —  the  title 
of  conquest;  truly,  if  such  a  picture  were  presented 
to  us,  and  we  were  asked  to  pronounce  upon  the 
character  of  the  laws  of  that  country,  we  would 
say :  The  law-maker  should  have  but  one  thought 


I  12 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


—  to  protedt  the  women  against  the  men  and 
against  themselves;  seeing  on  one  side  so  much 
weakness,  so  much  exposure,  so  much  expiatory 
suffering,  on  the  other  so  much  power  and  impu¬ 
nity  ;  he  should  throw  himself  between  the  seducer 
and  his  vidtim;  armed  for  those  who  are  unarmed, 
he  should  energetically  reestablish  the  rights  of 
j  ustice  and  chastity ;  every  yielding  maiden  should 
be  punished,  but  every  seducer  should  be  doubly 
punished,  for  he  did  the  evil  or  caused  it  to  be 
done.  Such  is  the  language  that  every  honest 
man  would  put  in  the  mouth  of  the  law-maker. 
And  here,  on  the  other  hand,  is  what  the  French 
code  says  :  ‘The  maiden  from  the  age  of  fifteen 
is  alone  responsible  for  her  honor  —  sedudf ion 
shall  not  be  punished  —  promise  of  marriage  made 
with  a  view  to  sedudtion  is  void  —  illegitimate 
children  must  be  reared  at  the  expense  of  the 
mother.’  Such  abandonment  of  public  decency 
is  not  to  be  found  among  another  civilized  people, 
not  even  among  barbarians.” 

Tegouve’s  natural  indignation  hurries  him  into 
inaccuracy.  The  same  abandonment  of  decency 
was  found  in  England,  until  recently,  and  is 
found  to-day  in  the  United  States. 

Suppose  a  girl  has  just  past  her  tenth  or  twelfth 
birthday.  She  is  now  competent  to  consent  to 
her  dishonor.  Against  all  legal  usage,  she  is  not 
presumed  to  be  innocent  until  proved  guilty  ;  the 


THE  SOCIAL,  EVIL,. 


113 

burden  of  proof  is  laid  on  her  ;  she  must  show  to 
the  satisfaction  of  a  jury  of  men  that  she  resisted 
to  the  utmost;  otherwise  the  seducer,  however  he 
may  have  accomplished  the  sedudtion,  -whether 
by  threats,  or  gifts,  or  cajolery,  or  affedtion,  or 
authority  —  escapes  un whipped  of  j ustice.  While 
girlish  purity  is  thus  made  legal  game  for  wily 
Lotharios  of  every  age,  a  boy  is  excluded  from 
prosecution  for  this  crime  under  the  age  of  four¬ 
teen —  the  common-law  age  of  puberty,  but  by 
no  means  the  invariable  law  of  nature.  The 
legislature  of  Ohio,  some  years  ago,  raised  the 
age  of  protection  for  boys  to  seventeen  years,  and 
in  the  same  statute  fixed  the  age  of  consent  for 
girls  at  ten  years! 

Such  inconsistency,  such  partiality,  such  dis¬ 
crimination  against  the  more  exposed  and  more 
suffering  victim,  and  in  favor  of  the  less  exposed 
but  guiltier  betrayer,  is  to  be  expedted  under  a 
double  standard  of  morals.  But  this  is  hateful  to 
God.  Religion  knows  no  dual  code.  Judaism  pre¬ 
scribes  a  single  standard  in  the  decalogue.  The 
law  of  Moses  presupposed  violence  on  the  part  of 
the  ravisher  and  resistance  on  the  part  of  his  victim 
—  ‘  ‘  The  maiden  hath  cried  and  hath  not  been 
heard.”  Christianity  has  adopted  the  Seventh 
Commandment.  Jesus,  going  further,  condemns 
the  adultery  of  the  eye  and  desire:  “Ye  have 
heard  that  it  was  said  by  them  of  old  time,  thou 


1 14  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

shalt  not  commit  adultery  ;  but  I  say  unto  you 
that  whosoever  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after 
her  hath  committed  adultery  with  her  already  in 
his  heart.”  The  canon  law  defined  defilement, 
even  without  violence  —  volente  virgine  —  by  the 
name  of  stuprum,  and  the  stuprator  was  con¬ 
demned  either  to  marry  the  girl  so  corrupted  by 
him,  or  to  bestow  a  dowry  upon  her,  according 
to  the  decision  of  her  father.  In  default  of  ful¬ 
filling  one  or  other  of  these  two  conditions,  he 
was  beaten  with  rods,  excommunicated,  and  im¬ 
prisoned  in  a  monastery,  there  to  perform  per¬ 
petual  penance. 

Outside  of  religion  the  old  laws  eredted  ram¬ 
parts  to  safeguard  the  fresh  youth  of  the  maiden 
and  the  purity  of  the  wife. 

The  Jewish  law  condemned  the  adulterer  to 
death.  Abimelech  to  the  men  of  Gerah  made 
it  death  to  meddle  with  the  wife  of  Isaac.  Among 
the  Egyptians  this  offense  might  never  be  con¬ 
doned,  and  was  punished  by  a  fearful  mutila¬ 
tion  of  the  male  offender.  The  Greeks  and 
Romans,  in  their  best  days,  equally  abhorred  and 
banned  this  vice.  Among  the  ancient  Germans 
the  price  of  an  outrage  committed  on  a  virgin  was 
two-fifths  more  than  that  for  a  warrior.  Every 
free  man  who  touched  the  hand  of  a  free  woman 
was  fined  600  deniers  —  a  small  Roman  coin  ;  he 
who  touched  her  arm,  1,200  ;  he  who  touched  her 


THE  SOCIAL  EVIL. 


1 15 

bosom,  1,800  ;  merely  to  dishevel  her  hair  entailed 
a  considerable  penalty.  They  held  a  woman’s 
person  to  be  sacred  —  as  indeed  it  is,  since  it  is  a 
fountain  of  affedtion  and  life.  The  ancient  Franks 
in  like  manner  called  down  terrible  penalties  upon 
abdudtion  and  rape.  Old  Saxon  laws  punished 
sedudtion  with  death,  until  William  the  Con¬ 
queror  mitigated  the  penalty  to  emasculation  and 
the  loss  of  the  eyes.  Several  centuries  later  rav¬ 
ishment  was  made  a  felon3T,  the  penal  consequences 
of  which  were  death  and  forfeiture  of  lands  and 
goods.  Thus  religion,  Jewish  and  Christian, 
canon  laws  and  civil  laws,  Greeks,  Romans, 
Germans,  Franks  —  all  agreed  in  protecting  the 
purity  for  which  women  are  held  to  such  stridt 
account,  the  loss  of  which  is  the  ruin  of  families 
and  of  the  State  itself ;  and  the}^  agreed,  too,  in  the 
wish  and  effort  to  root  out  so  dishonest  and 
shameful  a  crime  as  the  exposure  of  the  vidtim 
and  the  shielding  of  the  seducer,  from  under 
heaven. 

The  double  standard,  then,  is  a  modern  device 
—  and  vice ,  without  the  prefix.  Out  with  it  from 
among  men  !  Away  with  it  into  the  limbo  of 
other  discarded  villainies  ! 

Some  years  ago,  Miss  Ellice  Hopkins,  the 
daughter  of  a  former  president  of  the  British 
Scientific  Association,  and  a  cultured  member  of 
the  English  Church,  had  her  attention  turned, 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


1 16 

through  Christian  work  in  Condon,  to  the  expo¬ 
sure  of  young  girls  under  the  existing  laws  fixing 
the  age  of  consent.  In  association  with  others, 
she  caused  the  criminal  reform  bill,  which  raised 
the  age  of  consent  to  sixteen  years,  to  be  intro¬ 
duced  in  the  House  of  Commons.  For  years  it 
lay  there  pigeon-holed  or  buried  in  the  tomb  of 
some  committee.  This  brave  lady,  by  a  happy 
inspiration,  enlisted  in  the  cause  that  fearless 
editor,  Wm.  T.  Stead  —  whose  name  should  be 
lengthened  to  Steadfast.  One  morning  the  first 
of  those  earthquake  disclosures,  which  shook 
London  and  the  wTorld,  appeared  under  the  start¬ 
ling  caption  “The  Maiden  Tribute  to  Modern 
Babylon,  in  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette .  Instalment 
succeeded  instalment,  uncapping  hell.  The 
public  learned  with  amazement,  and  horror,  that 
English  law  put  a  premium  on  libertinism  ;  that 
female  virtue  was  an  article  of  aCtual  traffic  ;  and 
that  the  most  elegant  saunterers  in  aristocratic 
London  clubs  were  the  traffickers.  As  a  conse¬ 
quence  of  these  exposures,  the  criminal  reform 
bill  was  passed  triumphantly.  Under  the  impetus 
of  this  success,  the  White  Cross  Army,  a  male 
organization  founded  by  Miss  Hopkins,  in  Eng¬ 
land,  and  pradtically  pledged  to  war  against  the 
double  standard,  and  replace  it  by  the  single 
standard  of  Christ  —  invaded  this  country.  At 
the  same  time  Miss  Willard  organized  the  White 


THE  SOCIAL  EVIL. 


117 

Ribbon  department  of  the  Women’s  Christian 
Temperance  Union  for  the  special  protection  of 
female  virtue.  While  much  remains  undone, 
much  has  also  been  done  in  recent  years,  through 
these  and  kindred  bodies.  In  many  State'  the 
age  of  consent  has  been  raised.  Taws  bettering 
the  general  condition  of  women  have  been  passed 
—  a  hopeful  beginning  has  been  made.  Certain 
it  is  that  the  double  standard  of  morals  is 
doomed. 

Any  discussion  of  the  social  evil  necessitates  at 
least  a  reference  to  the  proper  treatment  of  Mag- 
dalens.  With  the  abrogation  of  the  double  stand¬ 
ard  of  morals,  a  more  considerate  spirit  towards 
these  unfortunates  will  prevail.  The  words 
of  the  Master  when  they  “told  him  of  the 
Galileans  whose  blood  Pilate  had  mingled  with 
their  sacrifices,”  apply  here  :  “  Suppose  ye  that 
these  Galileans  were  sinners  above  all  the  Gali¬ 
leans  because  they  suffered  such  things  ?  I  tell 
you,  nay  ;  but,  except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  like¬ 
wise  perish.  ’  ’  Like  any  other  sinners,  abandoned 
women  may  be  saved  on  the  common  terms  of 
penitence  and  faith.  They  have  been  drawn  away 
from  virtue,  many  of  them,  by  a  false  love  ;  a  true 
love  must  draw  them  back  to  it.  Let  those  erring 
sisters  remember  Mary  Magdalene-,  and  hope.  In 
Milton’s  ‘  ‘  Mask  of  Coriius  ’  ’  there  is  inspiration  in 
the  beautiful  words  with  which  the  attendant 


1 1 8  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

spirit  closes  the  poem,  while  poised  for  upward 
flight  : 

“  Mortals,  that  would  follow  me, 

Love  virtue  ;  she  alone  is  free  ; 

She  can  teach  ye  how  to  climb 
Higher  than  the  sphery  chime  ; 

Or,  if  virtue  feeble  were, 

Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her.  ’  ’ 

But,  after  all,  prevention  is  better  than  cure. 
Sociologists  are  more  concerned  to  stop  the  social 
evil  at  its  sources  than  to  save  a  few  victims  here 
and  there.  “From  what  sources  are  the  ranks 
of  female  profligacy  recruited?”  asks  Wendell 
Phillips.  We  commend  his  answer  to  the  careful 
attention  of  our  readers  :  “A  few  mere  giddiness 
hurries  to  ruin.  Their  protection  would  be  in 
that  character  and  sound  common-sense  which  a 
wider  interest  in  practical  life  would  generally 
create.  In  a  few,  the  love  of  sensual  gratification, 
grown  over-strong,  because  all  the  other  powers 
are  dormant  for  want  of  exercise,  wrecks  its  un¬ 
happy  viCtim.  The  medicine  for  these  would  be 
occupation,  awaking  intellect,  and  stirring  their 
higher  energies.  Give  everyone  an  earnest  in¬ 
terest  in  life,  something  to  do,  something  that 
kindles  emulation,  and  soon  the  gratification  of 
the  senses  sinks  into  proper  subordination.  It  is 
idle  hands  that  are  tempted  to  mischief ;  and  she 
is  emphatically  idle  half  of  whose  nature  is  unem- 


THE  SOCIAL  EVIL. 


i 1 9 

ployed.  Why  does  man  so  much  oftener  than 
woman  surmount  a  few  years  of  sensual  gratifica¬ 
tion,  and  emerge  into  a  worthier  life?  It  is  not 
solely  because  the  world’s  judgment  is  so  much 
harder  upon  her.  Man  can  immerse  himself  in 
business  that  stirs  keenly  all  his  faculties,  and 
thus  smother  passion  in  honorable  cares.  An 
ordinary  woman,  once  fallen,  has  no  busy  and 
stirring  life  in  which  to  take  refuge,  where  intel¬ 
lect  will  contend  for  mastery  with  passion,  and 
where  virtue  is  braced  by  high  and  adtive 
thoughts.  Passion  comes  back  to  the  ‘empty,’ 
though  ‘  swept  and  garnished  ’  chambers,  bring¬ 
ing  with  it  more  devils  than  before.  But,  un 
doubtedly,  the  great  temptation  to  this  vice  is  the 
love  of  dress,  of  wealth,  and  the  luxuries  it  secures. 
There  are  many  women,  earning  two  or  three 
dollars  a  week,  who  feel  that  they  are  as  capable 
as  their  brothers  of  earning  hundreds,  if  they 
could  be  permitted  to  exert  themselves  as  freely. 
Fretting  to  see  the  coveted  rewards  of  life  forever 
forbidden  to  them,  they  are  tempted  to  shut  their 
eyes  to  the  character  of  the  means  by  which  a 
taste,  however  short,  may  be  gained  of  the  wealth 
and  luxury  they  sigh  for.  Open  to  a  man  a  fair 
field  for  his  industry  and  secure  to  him  its 
gains,  and  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  men 
out  of  every  thousand  will  disdain  to  steal.  Open 
to  woman  a  fair  field  for  her  industry,  let  her  do 


120 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


anything  her  hands  find  to  do,  and  enjoy  her 
gains,  and  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  women 
out  of  every  thousand  will  disdain  to  debase  them¬ 
selves  for  dress  and  ease.  ’  ’  Are  we  not  led  by 
such  thoughts  to  applaud  the  larger  life  of  women 
in  our  day,  and  to  hope  from  its  ever- widening 
.scope  to  reap  a  harvest  of  virtue  in  the  near 
future  ? 

Amid  these  moral  reflections,  however,  we 
must  not  lose  sight  of  the  political  danger-signals 
that  are  hung  out  by  the  social  evil.  As  the 
saloon  and  the  brothel  are  next  door  neighbors 
on  the  street,  so  are  they  in  the  caucus.  As  the 
law  frowns  upon  both,  they  are  alike  interested 
in  tampering  with  the  law.  As  the  police  are  the 
normal  agents  of  the  law,  they  are  concerned  in  a 
common  corruption  of  the  police.  •  Finding  a  dirty 
bonanza  in  these  twin  filth  heaps,  law-makers  and 
police  are,  in  their  turn,  ready  to  be  tempted  and 
to  give  immunity  for  so  much  cash  in  hand.  It 
was  in  this  way  in  New  York,  before  the  late  re¬ 
form,  that  Tammany  Hall  “  worked  ”•  the  saloon 
and  the  brothel  for  political  revenue.  The  social 
evil  in  that  city  was  actually  built  up  abnormally 
by  the  very  authorities  paid  to  suppress  it.  Dr. 
Parkliurst  in  describing  the  fight  with  Tammany, 
observes  that  ‘  ‘  the  social  evil  was  so  protected 
and  encouraged  by  the  filthy  officials  who  con¬ 
trolled  the  police  department,  that  the  number  of 


THE  SOCIAL,  EVIL,. 


I  2 1 


abandoned  women  and  disorderly  houses  in  New 
York  was  no  measure  of  what  it  would  be  with  a 
police  force,  from  top  down,  which  conceived  of 
sexual  crime  as  an  evil  to  be  suppressed,  not  as 
a  capital  to  draw  dividends  from.”  17 

In  like  manner,  an  eminent  writer,  in  speaking 
of  Chicago  before  the  recent  partial  —  too  partial 
—  civic  purification,  says  :  “  With  almost  univer¬ 
sal  agreement,  the  foreigners  who  came  back  from 
the  Fair,  declared  Chicago  to  be  as  irreligious  as 
Paris,  as  licentious  as  Vienna,  as  much  engaged 
in  gambling  as  Monte  Carlo,  and  more  drunken 
and  lax  in  the  administration  of  its  statutes  than 
any  city  in  Europe.  ’  ’ 

Charles  Bonaparte,  in  an  article  in  The  Forum 
on  “Political  Corruption  in  Maryland,”  tells  of 
a  young  lawyer  in  Baltimore  who  aspired  to  be  a 
school  commissioner,  and  who  was  told  by  the 
politicians  that  he  could  not  have  the  nomination, 
as  ‘  ‘  the  bawdy-house  interest  demanded  recogni¬ 
tion  on  the  school  board.” 

With  the  saloon  ‘  ‘  recognized  ’  ’  in  the  city 
council  and  on  the  police,  and  the  brothel  deci¬ 
ding  what  our  children  shall  study  through  its 
representative  on  the  school  board ;  with  the 
one  nullifying  law,  and  the  other  expurgating  the 
Seventh  Commandment,  we  are  curious  to  know 
where  and  how  the  gambler  figures  in  the  cornic- 
tragedy.  But  we  reserve  him  for  another  chapter. 


VI. 


GAMBLING. 

The  liquor  seller  and  the  prostitute,  whether 
male  or  female,  are  two  persons  of  a  diabolical 
trinity,  of  which  the  third  person  is  the  gambler. 
To  describe  him  one  needs  the  pen  of  Dickens  ; 
to  paint  his  arts,  the  pencil  of  Hogarth  ;  to  flay 
his  vice,  the  satire  of  Pope  ;  to  write  his  epitaph, 
the  judgment  of  Solomon,  who  says — “The 
memory  of  the  wicked  shall  rot.” 

The  British  equivalent  for  our  gamble  is  game, 
and  our  gambler  is  their  gamester.  The  words 
are  derived  from  the  same  Saxon  root,  and  have 
the  same  meaning. 

A  history  of  gambling  would  be  a  history  of 
human  depravity.  That  is  to  say,  gambling  is  a 
universal  vice.  The  savage  and  the  civilized,  the 
illiterate  and  the  learned,  the  poor  and  the  rich, 
the  male  and  the  female,  are  alike  susceptible  to 
its  guilty  thrill,  and  captivated  by  its  illusive 
promise  to  give  wealth  without  work.  A  gambler 
will  gamble  with  anything,  but  his  favorite  im¬ 
plements  are  dice,  cards,  and  horses.  Dice  are 
as  old  as  civilization.  Two  cubes,  supposed  to 
be  Etruscan  dice,  but  marked  with  words  instead 
of  pips,  have  given  ground  for  the  theory  that  the 


122 


GAMBLING. 


123 


Etruscan  was  a  Turanian  language,  the  words 
being  assumed  to  be  numerals — the  only  useful 
service  ever  known  to  have  been  rendered  by  dice. 
Dicers,  in  the  a<5t  of  throwing  dice,  are  pictured 
upon  the  most  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt. 
The  Greeks  gave  the  names  of  their  gods  to  the 
different  throws — a  kind  of  pantomimic  profanity. 
Dicing  was  popular  in  ancient  Rome,  and  nowa¬ 
days  the  dice-box  rattles  around  the  globe. 

Cards  came  from  Asia,  and  were  originally  used 
only  for  fortune- telling.  The  Saracens  brought 
them  into  Spain  and  Italy,  whence  they  soon 
spread  through  Europe.  At  first,  cards  were  used 
as  a  pastime  in  fashionable  circles,  where  the  art 
of  conversation  had  been  lost,  or  never  acquired, 
and  where  a  panacea  against  ennui  was  eagerly 
welcomed. 

Pope,  in  one  of  his  “  Moral  Essays,”  pictures 
the  faded  dowagers  of  his  day  as  thus  employed  : 

‘  ‘  See  how  the  world  its  veterans  reward  ! 

A  youth  of  frolics,  an  old  age  of  cards  ; 

Fair  to  no  purpose,  artful  to  no  end, 

Young  without  lovers,  old  without  a  friend  ; 

A  fop  their  passion,  but  their  prize  a  sot ; 

In  life,  ridiculous,  and  dead,  forgot.” 

Later,  cards  were  seized  by  blacklegs,  in  and 
out  of  society,  and  identified  with  the  worst  phases 
of  sporting  life. 

As  for  horses,  from  time  immemorial  they  have 


124 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


been  used  and  abused  for  betting  purposes;  and 
all  betting  is  gambling. 

As  drinking  and  harlotry  have  houses  devoted 
exclusively  to  them,  so  also  has  gambling,  al¬ 
though  frequently  all  three  are  domesticated  under 
the  same  roof.  From  the  middle  ages  down  to 
Fouis  Napoleon,  such  places  existed  in  France, 
and  were  patronized  alike  by  court  and  people. 
In  1775  gambling  was  licensed  in  Paris — that 
capital  of  pleasure,  whose  unhappy  destiny  it 
seems  to  be  to  .set  the  pace  of  wickedness.  The 
great  French  Chief  of  Police,  Fouche,  received 
$640,000  from  this  source  —  a  thrift  successfully 
imitated  by  police  officials  since  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic. 

Famous  gambling  houses  used  to  exist  in  Ger¬ 
many,  at  Baden,  Homburg,  Wiesbaden,  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  and  at  Spa,  in  Belgium.  These  towns 
combined  every  attraction  of  nature  and  art.  To 
the  mineral  springs,  which  first  made  them  places 
of  resort,  were  added  gardens,  walks,  drives,  pub¬ 
lic  music,  reading-rooms,  balls  ;  the  climax  of  at¬ 
traction  being  the  palace  of  fortune,  nightly 
crowded  with  gamblers  of  both  sexes  and  every 
degree,  and  kindled  like  Milton’s  Pandemonium, 

-  ‘  ‘  with  many  a  row 

Of  starry  lamps  and  blazing  cresets,  fed 
With  naphtha  and  asphaltus,  yielding  light 
As  from  a  sky.” 


GAMBLING. 


125 


A  consensus  of  opinion  exists  among  moralists 
and  legislators  regarding  the  abhorrent  character 
of  this  vice.  The  first  denounce  it,  and  the  others 
prohibit  it.  One  after  the  other,  the  great  lumin¬ 
aries  in  the  pandemonium  sky  have  been  forced 
to  quench  their  baleful  fires.  In  Paris  gambling 
is  now  illegal  and  secret.  Throughout  Europe  it 
is  under  the  ban.  Monaco  is  the  only  gambling 
hell  now  open  there.  In  America  it  is  equally 
tabooed  by  law.  Our  great  cities  have  recently 
closed  every  public  door  —  may  they  remain  shut ! 

What  is  gambling  ?  It  may  be  defined  as  the 
staking  of  anything  of  value  upon  mere  hazard. 
It  differs  from  business  in  this,  that  business  rests 
upon  a  fair  exchange  —  gives  value  for  value  re¬ 
ceived.  The  merchant  sells  his  merchandise,  the 
laborer  sells  his  labor,  the  physician  sells  his 
medical  services,  the  attorney  sells  his  knowledge 
of  the  law,  the  farmer  sells  his  produce,  the 
mechanic  sells  his  skill — each  for  so  much  money ; 
and  in  each  case  there  is  an  exchange.  Gambling 
returns  no  honest  equivalent.  It  exadts  value, 
and  gives  back  nothing  but  a  chance ;  a  chance 
attenuated  into  invisibility  by  the  dishonesty  of 
the  gambler.  Gamester  and  cheat  have  been 
synonymous  terms  in  the  English  language  since 
the  time  of  Ben  Jonson  and  Shakespeare. 

Under  this  definition  of  gambling,  we  are  bound 
to  condemn  the  wide-spread  habit  of  betting,  the 


126 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

% 

mania  for  speculation  which  infests  the  country, 
and,  above  all,  certain  transactions  of  the  stock 
exchange.  There  is  a  legitimate  business  of  the 
brokers’  board,  and  there  are  honest  brokers.  But 
the  organized  conspiracies  to  corner  the  neces¬ 
saries  of  life,  and  to  swindle  and  plunder  outside 
investors,  which  exist  side  by  side  with  those 
legitimate  transactions ,  and  under  the  eyes,  though 
without  the  connivance,  of  honest  brokers  —  are 
fitted  to  stir  righteous  indignation.  “  It  is  not 
one  of  the  least  perplexing  anomalies  of  modern 
life  and  manners,  ’  ’  affirms  Edward  Everett,  ‘  ‘  that, 
while  avowed  and  thus  far  honest  gambling  —  if 
the  words  may  be  connected  —  is  driven  by  public 
opinion  and  the  law  to  seclude  itself  from  obser¬ 
vation  within  carefully  tiled  doors,  there  to  fool 
away  its  hundreds,  perhaps  its  thousands,  in 
secret — discredited,  infamous,  blasted  by  the  ana¬ 
themas  of  deserted,  heart-broken  wives  and  beg¬ 
gared  children,  subjeCt  at  all  times  to  the  fell 
.swoop  of  the  police — the  licensed  gambling  of  the 
brokers’  board  is  carried  on  in  the  face  of  day  ; 
its  pretended  sales  of  what  it  does  not  own,  its  pre¬ 
tended  purchases  of  what  it  does  not  propose  to 
pay  for  or  handle,  are  chronicled  in  the  public 
prints  to  the  extent  of  millions  in  the  course  of 
the  season,  for  the  cruel  and  dishonest  purpose  of 
frightening  innocent  third  parties  into  the  ruinous 
sacrifice  of  bona  fide  property,  and  thus  making  a 


GAMBLING. 


I27 


guilty  profit  out  of  the  public  distress  and  the 
ruin  of  thousands.  ’  ’ 

The  main  source  of  this  vice  is  a  depraved  crav¬ 
ing  for  excitement.  “The  body,”  observes 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  in  the  famous  discourse  on 
“  Gamblers  and  Gambling,”  in  his  “  Lectures  to 
Young  Men,  ”  “is  not  stored  with  a  fixed  amount 
of  strength,  nor  the  mind  with  a  uniform  measure 
of  excitement  ;  but  both  are  capable  by  stimula¬ 
tion  of  expansion  of  strength  or  feeling  almost 
without  limit.  Experience  shows  that,  within 
certain  bounds,  excitement  is  healthy  and  neces¬ 
sary,  but  beyond  this  limit  exhausting  and  de¬ 
structive.  Men  are  allowed  to  choose  between 
moderate  but  long-continued  excitement,  and  in¬ 
tense  and  short-lived  excitement.  Too  generally 
they  prefer  the  latter.  Gambling  is  founded  upon 
the  worst  perversion  of  this  powerful  element  in 
human  nature.  It  heats  every  part  of  the  mind 
like  an  oven.  The  faculties  which  produce  cal¬ 
culation,  pride  of  skill,  of  superiority,  love  of 
gain,  hope,  fear,  jealousy,  hatred,  are  absorbed  in 
the  game,  and  exhilarated  or  exacerbated  by 
victory  or  defeat.  These  passions  are  doubtless 
excited  in  men  by  the  daily  occurrences  of  life  ; 
but  then  they  are  transient,  and  counteracted  by 
a  thousand  grades  of  emotion,  which  rise  and  fali 
like  the  undulations  of  the  sea.  But  in  gambling- 
there  is  no  intermission,  no  counteraction.  The 


128 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


whole  mind  is  excited  to  the  utmost,  and  concen¬ 
trated  at  its  extreme  point  of  excitation  for  hours 
and  days,  with  the  additional  waste  of  sleepless 
nights,  profuse  drinking,  and  other  congenial  im¬ 
moralities.  Every  other  pursuit  becomes  taste¬ 
less  ;  for  no  ordinary  duty  has  in  it  a  stimulus 
that  can  scorch  a  mind  which  now  refuses  to  burn 
without  blazing,  or  to  feel  an  interest  which  is 
not  intoxication.  ’  ’ 

These  considerations  explain  the  inveteracy  of 
this  vice.  Few  gamblers  ever  cease  gambling. 
Its  victims  have  been  among  the  otherwise  mighty 
of  the  earth.  Henry  IV. ,  of  France,  was  one  ;  the 
courtly  Knight  Duguesclin  was  another  ;  Cardinal 
Mazarin  was  a  third.  The  English  statesmen 
of  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  and  under  the  four 
Georges,  were  deep  players.  And  some  of  the 
earlier  lights  in  American  history  are  likewise 
stained.  The  Chinese  play  night  and  day,  till  they 
have  lost  everything  —  then  hang  themselves. 
The  Siamese  sell  their  possessions,  their  families, 
themselves,  to  satisfy  this  craving.  Among  the 
Malays  a  gambler,  after  losing  everything, 
loosens  a  certain  lock  of  hair,  which  indicates 
his  desperation  and  purpose  to  slay  all  whom  he 
may  meet,  and  thus  ‘ ‘  runs  amuck,  ’  ’  as  it  is  called, 
and  may  be  lawfully  slain  in  turn.  The  ancients 
were  not  less  addidled  to  gambling.  In  the  de¬ 
cline  of  the  Empire,  a  wealthy  Roman  would  fre- 


GAMBLING. 


I29 


quently  .stake  his  whole  fortune  on  a  single  throw 
of  the  dice.  D’ Israeli,  in  his  “Curiosities  of 
Literature,  ’  ’  recites  the  story  of  a  French  physi¬ 
cian,  who  wrote  the  oldest  treatise  against  gam¬ 
bling  among  the  moderns,  in  order  to  convince 
himself  of  its  folly,  yet  who,  despite  his  solemn 
vows  and  prayers,  and  quotations  from  his  own 
book,  thrown  at  him  by  his  friends,  remained  a 
gambler  to  his  last  hour.  Few  gamblers  have  the 
sense  of  old  Montaigne,  who  says  he  stopped  be¬ 
cause  when  he  lost,  whatever  good  countenance 
he  put  on  it,  he  felt  anger  and  malice  burning 
none  the  less  fiercely  in  his  heart. 

Obviously,  a  mania  like  this  must  be  a  menace 
to  society.  Every  gambling-hell  is  a  college  of 
deceit.  Cheating  is  reduced  to  a  science.  Honest 
industry  becomes  disgusting.  Dishonest  in  itself, 
it  is  the  inevitable  cause  of  dishonesty  in  those  who 
practice  it.  The  prisons  are  full  of  criminals  who 
graduated  into  these  institutions  from  the  card- 
table  and  the  race-track.  Nay,  it  is  an  axiom 
that  a  decline  in  private  decency  and  public 
honest y  is  in  exadt  ratio  to  the  prevalence  of 
gambling.  Hardly  a  home  which  has  not  been 
shadowed  by  it. 

Nor  are  its  political  aspedts  less  somber  and 
threatening.  For  is  not  a  pradtise  which  destroys 
individual  charadler  and  public  honor  a  menace  ? 
As  has  been  said,  the  gambler  is  invariably  in 


130 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


league  with  the  saloon-keeper  and  the  harlot,  has 
the  same  interests,  the  same  exposures,  the  same 
bad  influence.  It  is  his  ‘  ‘  pull  ’  ’  which  saves  him 
from  being  ‘  ‘  pulled. 

This  alliance  of  the  vices  must  be  kept  in  view 
by  the  friends  of  law  and  order  ;  and  repressive 
measures  must  close  upon  them  all  and  equally , 
as  the  fingers  do  upon  the  hand. 


VII. 


THE  DEVIL  IN  INK. 

As  art,  science,  politics,  and  poetry  have  their 
literary  propaganda,  so  also  have  the  vices,  which 
seek  their  justification  and  demand  their  glorifi¬ 
cation  in  a  lying  philosophy  and  a  corrupt  and 
corrupting  literature.  Thus  we  have  the  devil  in 
ink.  ’Tis  one  of  the  most  curious,  perplexing, 
difficult  of  compound  fadts,  this  inter-play  and 
close  alliance  betwixt  the  evil  forces  in  modern 
society,  so  that  each  strengthens  all,  and  all  each, 
with  a  literary  annex  both  for  defen.se  and  aggres¬ 
sion. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  an  experimenting 
monk  in  a  corner  of  Europe — at  Freiburg,  in  1330 
—  put  niter,  charcoal,  and  sulphur  together.  The 
result  was  gunpowder,  which  revolutionized  war¬ 
fare.  A  century  later  —  at  Strasburg,  in  1450  — 
John  Gutenberg'  carved  movable  types  out  of 
blocks  of  wood.  Civilization  came  into  possession 
of  its  mightiest  secular  agent,  printing.  Well 
do  the  statues  eredted  in  honor  of  the  immortal  in¬ 
ventor  at  Strasburg  and  at  Mentz  represent  him 
as  leaning  on  his  press,  whence  streams  forth  the 
light.  Thenceforth  literature  was  popularized, 

131 


132 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


and  learning,  in  the  phrase  of  Lord  Bacon, 

‘ ‘  lights  her  torch  at  every  man’s  candle. 

Ours  is  preeminently  the  age  of  the  omnipo¬ 
tence  of  printers’  ink.  Satan  has  been  quick  to 
recognize  and  act  upon  this  fadt.  He  has  im¬ 
mersed  himself  in  the  ink  bottle.  On  a  certain 
occasion  Luther  is  said  to  have  flung  a  bottle  of 
ink  at  the  devil.  Taking  the  hint,  the  devil  has 
been  busy  ever  since  in  flinging  ink.  He  has  be¬ 
deviled  the  fluid  until  millions  of  pages  reek  with 
damnation. 

Unfold  the  average  newspaper.  In  many  ways 
it  is  a  miraculous  achievement.  Its  telegraphic 
nerves  stretch  over  the  land  and  under  the  sea  to 
click  the  news  of  the  world  into  its  pages.  And 
what  .stouter  exponent  of  civilization  is  there  in 
all  the  arena?  Duguesclin,  or  the  Black  Prince, 
did  no  mightier  deeds  of  valor.  Sad,  that  this 
knight-errant  of  to-day  should  demean  its  sword 
in  the  championship  of  vice  in  any  form.  The 
paper  is  white,  but  the  print  is  black  in  more 
senses  than  one.  Notice  the  disproportionally 
large  space  allotted  to  reports  of  murders,  arsons, 
burglaries,  divorces,  assaults,  prize-fights,  even 
bull-fights,  telegraphed  all  the  way  from  Spain  or 
Mexico,  until  horrors  pass  before  the  reader  as 
the  ghosts  trooped  in  the  midnight  vision  of 
Richard  III.  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Bosworth. 
The  sheet  reads  like  a  daily  bulletin  of  the  pit. 


THE  DEVIL  IN  INK. 


133 


Our  friends  in  the  editorial  sanCtum  tell  us  this  is 
“news.”  Suppose  it  is,  why  print  it?  Who  is 
made  the  better  or  the  wiser  by  it  ?  Does  not  the 
spreading  of  these  nauseous  details  over  columns 
and  columns,  day  after  day,  demoralize  the  pub¬ 
lic  ?  What  imaginable  importance  is  attached  to 
squabbles  in  saloons,  the  deeds  of  profligates,  or 
the  opinions  of  criminals?  If  mentioned  at  all, 
why  not  merely  mention  these  occurrences?  Why 
those  startling  headlines  and  sensational  para¬ 
graphs?  Is  not  vice  taught  in  this  way,  while  it 
is  seemingly  condemned  ?  Wickedness  is  infec¬ 
tious.  The  recital  of  it  always  impels  imitators  to 
go  and  do  likewise.  If  it  be  a  study  in  morbid 
anatomy,  better  relegate  it  to  the  physicians. 

The  tone  of  newspaper  treatment  of  these  themes 
is  objectionable.  A  depraved  custom  prevails 
which  leads  reporters  to  attend  trials  and  paint 
pre-Raphaelite  pictures,  in  which  minute  inci¬ 
dents,  the  pose,  gestures,  tones  of  those  arraigned, 
are  emphasized,  while  family  skeletons  are  ruth¬ 
lessly  dragged  out  of  close-locked  closets  and  gal¬ 
vanized  into  hideous  movement  to  amuse  a  morbid 
public  taste.  Occurrences  grim  and  grewsome 
are  turned  into  ridicule;  as  in  England  poets  used 
to  address  jocular  lines  to  highwaymen  on  the 
way  to  Tyburn  to  be  hung,  and  advise  them  to 
mount  the  cart  cheerfully  and  ‘ k  kick  the  bucket 
with  grace  ;  and  as  in  this  country  reporters  re- 


i34 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


peat  the  sayings  of  ‘ 1  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser 
sort  ”  with  gusto,  and  treat  their  doings  as  a  good 
joke. 

Consider  what  it  is  that  is  thus  made  a  stuffing 
for  newspapers  and  coined  into  an  income  by 
penny-a-liners — the  disgrace  and  despair  of  honest 
relatives  of  malefactors,  the  wreck  of  character, 
the  death  of  hope.  For  crime  is  a  cannibal  which 
eats  up  all  the  youth  and  inexperience  it  can  lay 
hold  of,  and  gormandizes  upon  its  own  sons  and 
daughters.  The  spot  where  manhood  dies,  where 
womanhood  is  lost,  is  too  black  for  crape  and  too 
sad  for  cypress  —  the  saddest  speCtacle  the  pitying 
eye  of  heaven  looks  down  upon.  Did  Christian 
sentiments  prevail  among  us,  the  courts  would  be 
peopled  with  soul-savers,  as  dangerous  coasts  are 
with  body-savers,  and  the  shipwreck  of  character 
would  be  a  signal  to  “throw  out  the  life-line.” 
Criminals  should  be  punished  ;  the  safety  of  so¬ 
ciety  demands  it.  But  crime  is  not  a  joke  ;  it  is 
a  horror  of  common  concern,  and  all  should  com¬ 
bine  to  deal  out  to  it  a  treatment  at  once  punitive 
and  remedial. 

If  we  turn  from  the  sanCtum  to  the  book-store, 
we  go  from  bad  to  worse.  What  the  journals  do 
incidentally,  and  as  a  matter  of  news,  certain 
meretricious  publications  do  purposely.  They 
exist  for  the  propagation  of  immorality.  On  every 
news-stand  periodicals  stare  decency  out  of  coun- 


THK  DKVIlv  IN  INK. 


135 


tenance  with  pictures  as  nearly  nude  and  as  sug¬ 
gestive  in  posture  as  a  careful  study  of  the  statutes 
in  such  case  made  and  provided,  leads  the  pub¬ 
lisher  to  consider  on  the  safe  side  of  the  danger 
line.  The  city  of  Pittsburg,  in  Pennsylvania,  not 
long  ago  tabooed  these  sheets,  and  they  have 
vanished.  Why  not  make  every  town  a  Pittsburg 
in  this  respect  ?  Anthony  Comstock  has  chased 
transparent  cards,  and  similar  implements  of  cor¬ 
ruption,  out  of  the  open  market,  yet  they  continue 
to  circulate  sub  rosa ,  and  even  penetrate  into  de¬ 
corous  schools  to  poison  youth  of  both  sexes,  who 
by  handling  these  wares  of  sin  become  rotten  be¬ 
fore  they  are  ripe. 

How  many  trashy  and  flashy  novels  there  are, 
decollete,  novels,  whose  self-evident  design  is  to 
make  vice  attractive.  I11  these  the  appeal  is  to 
the  lowest  elements  —  to  the  devil  and  not  to  the 
angel  in  human  nature.  Often  the  story  is  breath¬ 
lessly  told,  and  the  style,  suggesting  rather  than 
disclosing  sin,  completes  the  diabolical  enchant¬ 
ment.  A  gentleman  in  India  was  once  reading  in 
his  library  when  he  felt  a  sharp  prick  at  the  end  of 
his  finger.  Glancing  down  he  saw  an  infinitesimal 
snake  between  the  leaves.  Shaking  it  to  the  floor, 
he  watched  it  squirm  out  of  sight.  Presently  his 
finger  began  to  swell,  then  his  arm.  I11  an  hour 
he  was  dead.  Beware  of  books  read  011  the  sly, 
locked  away  out  of  view,  passed  from  hand  to 


136 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


hand  under  the  handkerchief.  There  is  a  serpent 
hidden  in  the  pages  whose  sting  is  death.  Renan, 
uttering  the  thought  of  the  whole  French  infidel 
school,  has  said  that  “nature  cares  nothing  for 
chastity.  ’  ’  In  reply,  Matthew  Arnold  affirms  that 
however  it  may  be  with  nature,  human  nature 
does  care  for  chastity,  and  that  the  worship  of  the 
goddess  Lubricity  is  against  human  nature.  ‘  ‘  For 
this,”  he  adds,  “is  the  test  of  its  being  against 
human  nature,  that  for  human  societies  it  is 
ruin.” 

It  has  been  well  said  that  impurity  is  not  the 
only  vice,  but,  more  than  any  other,  it  stunts  and 
disorganizes  what  is  high  and  harmonious  in  man, 
robs  the  mind  of  noble  thoughts,  the  heart  of 
sweet  love,  leads  to  hardness  and  insolence,  dis¬ 
honesty  and  brutality  —  feeds  the  beast  and  starves 
the  soul.  Poor  Burns  —  who  knew  —  confirms 
this  : 

“  But  ocli!  it  hardens  a’  within, 

And  petrifies  the  feeling.” 

Whoever  will  watch  the  bill-boards  in  our  cities, 
reeking  with  vulgarity  and  obscenity,  the  pro¬ 
ceedings  in  divorce  courts,  the  dramas  produced 
in  the  theaters,  the  advertisements  in  widely-cir¬ 
culated  newspapers,  the  books  drawn  out  of  the 
libraries,  and  the  street  scenes  at  night,  will  be 
persuaded  that  the  sense  of  chastity  is  dying  or 
dead  among  the  American  people. 


THE  DEVIL  IN  INK. 


137 


Defenders  of  bad  books  are  not  lacking.  A 
young  Italian  scholar,  Guglielmo  Ferrero,  has  re¬ 
cently  published  an  ingenious  argument,  which 
may  be  thus  summarized  :  In  our  neurotic,  over¬ 
strained  society  a  large  number  of  persons  are 
subjeCt  to  abnormal,  morbid  tendencies,  which 
under  favorable  circumstances  may  develop  into 
positive  wickedness.  Abnormal,  morbid  books  of 
the  Ibsen,  Zola,  Tolstoi,  Du  Maurier  type  quiet 
these  latent  tendencies  by  creating  a  literan^  satis¬ 
faction.  Ferrero  continues  :  “  I  do  not  deny  that, 
regarded  from  an  unconditional  point  of  view, 
such  books  can  call  forth  evil  results,  particularly 
on  excitable  and  susceptible  minds  ;  but  whatever 
effedt  a  book  of  this  sort  may  produce  in  an  im¬ 
pressionable  brain,  it  will  always  be  less  than  if 
the  reader  had  come  in  personal  contaCt  with  the 
warped  mental  condition  from  which  the  book 
sprang.  Hence  the  book  is  the  best  defense 
against  the  dangerous  physical  epidemics,  which, 
not  yet  existing  as  a  derivative  of  literature  while 
the  ages  were  crude  and  ignorant,  were  a  power¬ 
ful  cause  of  social  disturbance.  Like  the  anti- 
toxine  injeCted  to  proteCl  the  sick  from  the  bacillus 
which  produces  the  anti-toxine,  it  is  transformed 
into  a  remedy  against  the  contagion  that  proceeds 
from  it.” 

Max  Nordau,  whose  remarkable  work  “  Degen¬ 
eration  ”  aroused  the  country,  answered  Ferrero 


138  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

in  the  July  number,  1895,  of  The  Forum.  To 
recommend  degenerate  books  to  neurotic  or  hys¬ 
terical  readers  —  and  he  believes  that  every  human 
mind  contains  every  species  of  aberration  and  de¬ 
lirium  in  the  germ  —  Nordau  declares,  is  not  to 
vaccinate  but  to  innoculate  them.  He  says  : 

‘  ‘  Could  I  but  relate  the  moral  devastations  trace¬ 
able  to  the  reading  of  Nietzsche  and  Ibsen  which 
I  have  seen  in  actual  life  !  It  is  the  selfsame  in¬ 
fluence  which,  in  the  last  century,  was  produced 
by  Goethe’s  ‘Werther.  ’  For  it  is  a  well-known 
fadt  that  as  a  result  of  reading  this  romance 
numerous  3-oung  fools  put  bullets  through  their 
heads.  Those  who  considered  the  book  respon¬ 
sible  for  the  suicidal  epidemic  were  answered  : 

‘  The  case  of  those  young  men  is  hardly  worthy 
of  commiseration ,  since  they  destroyed  themselves 
after  reading  ‘  Werther.’  They  were  irrespon¬ 
sible  and  useless.  Their  case  was  hopeless  long 
before  the  first  word  of  ‘  Werther  ’  was  written.’ 
That  may  be.  Certainly  no  well-balanced  man 
would  shoot  himself  as  the  consequence  of  reading 
‘Werther.’  It  is,  however,  equally  certain  that 
many  an  exalted  fool,  many  a  young  neurotic, 
did  destroy  himself  in  a  state  of  momentary  de¬ 
pression,  as  an  act  suggested  by  ‘  Werther,’  who 
otherwise  might  very  possibly  have  continued  in 
long  years  of  wholesome  usefulness,  if  that  book 
had  not  come  into  his  hands.  ’  ’ 


THK  PKVIL  IN  INK. 


T39 


He  adds  this  further  illustration:  “Take  a 
hysterical  woman  controlled  by  her  lower  nature, 
experiencing'  not  without  pain  the  constraints  of 
duty  ;  those  whom  she  esteems  and  trusts  have 
taught  her  the  creed  of  modesty  and  resistance  to 
temptation,  lest,  yielding  to  impulse,  .she  lose 
sobriety  and  her  own  esteem.  She  now  makes 
the  acquaintance  of  a  dramatist  and  novelist, 
who  demonstrates  that  as  a  girl  a  woman  has  the 
privilege  to  yield  to  her  erotic  impulses,  and 
when  married  to  break  her  vows,  presupposing 
she  feel  the  inclination  and  pleasure;  and  that 
such  behavior  under  these  inclinations  poitiavs 
a  strong  and  interesting  character;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  she  shows  herself  stupid,  unpro¬ 
gressive,  and  slavish  if  she  denies  herself  all  this. 
With  what  joy  will  she  not  profess  herself  a  dis¬ 
ciple  of  this  charming  moralist !  ’  ’ 

In  a  thoughtful  editorial  on  this  controversy 
between  Ferrero  and  Nordau,  the  Chicago  Trib¬ 
une ,  August  4th,  1895,  remarks:  “Nordau  is 
waging  a  glorious  battle  and  he  deserves  reen¬ 
forcement.  He  has  arrayed  against  him  the 
solid  ranks  of  degenerates,  lunatics,  and  madmen, 
of  morbid  men  and  hysterical  women,  of  fashion¬ 
able  faddists,  of  yellow  books  and  green  books, 
of  Bradleys  and  Beardsleys,  with  their  hideous 
distortions,  of  Manets  and  Monets,  with  their 
yellow  women  and  green  men,  of  maudlin,  fash- 


140 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


tollable  young  women,  of  Ibsenites  and  Tolstoiites, 
of  notoriety  seekers,  of  symbolism  and  mysticism, 
of  neurotic  and  erotic  creatures  in  a  state  of  ex¬ 
altation  which  finds  its  gratification  in  the  works 
of  the  degenerates  in  literature,  music,  and  art. 
It  is  a  long,  hard  battle  he  has  to  light,  but  he 
will  win  in  the  end.  Degeneracy  does  not,  as 
Ferrero  claims,  inject  an  antitoxine  into  the  read¬ 
er’s  mind.  On  the  contrary,  as  Nordau  insists, 
it  poisons  and  ruins  it.  The  proof  lies  in  the  fadl 
that  immorality  was  never  so  rampant  and  crime 
so  abundant  as  they  are  to-day.” 

Here,  then,  is  testimony  both  from  a  scientific 
specialist  and  a  layman  of  the  press,  confirmatory 
of  the  position  of  the  moralist.  Nay,  Jesus  him¬ 
self  anticipated  this  conclusion  more  than  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,  in  these  memorable  words : 

‘  ‘  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns  or  figs  of  this¬ 
tles?  Even  so  every  good  tree  bringeth  forth 
good  fruit ;  but  a  corrupt  tree  bringeth  forth  cor¬ 
rupt  fruit.  A  good  tree  can  not  bring  forth  evil 
fruit,  neither  can  a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good 
fruit.  Every  tree  that  bringeth  not  forth  good 
fruit  is  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire.  Where¬ 
fore  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.” 

Why  read  unwholesome  literature  when  there 
is  so  much  within  easy  reach  which  is  whole¬ 
some  ?  Read  history,  which,  according  to  Ford 
Bacon,  makes  men  wise.  Read  biography;  there 


THK  DKVII,  IN  INK. 


141 

is  a  moral  tone  in  it.  Horace  Greeley  said  that 
Franklin’s  autobiography  first  fired  his  ambition 
to  be  and  do  something.  Franklin  himself  asserts 
that  two  books  in  the  slender  library  of  his  father, 
viz.,  Defoe’s  “  Essay  on  Projects,”  and  Dr.  Ma¬ 
ther’s  “  Essay  to  do  Good,”  gave  him  a  turn  of 
thinking  which  had  an  influence  on  some  of  the 
principal  future  events  of  his  life.  Read  the 
standard  novels  —  Scott,  Dickens,  Thackeray, 
Charlotte  Bronte,  George  Eliot.  ‘  ‘  A  good  book,  ’ 1 
said  Milton,  “  is  the  precious  life-blood  of  a  mas¬ 
ter  spirit  embalmed  and  treasured  up  011  purpose 
to  a  life  beyond  life.” 

Christian  citizens  should  combine  to  say  to  the 
unclean  devil  in  the  ink — “Come  out!”  De¬ 
prived  of  their  literature,  the  vices  would  “dwin¬ 
dle,  peek  and  pine.”  Letters  would  become  an 
inspiration.  The  myriad  leaves,  like  the  leaves 
of  the  tree  of  life,  would  be  for  the  healing  of  the 
nation. 


VIII. 


THK  AMERICAN  SUNDAY. 

The  allied  abuses  which  have  now  been  de¬ 
scribed  as  encamped  in  the  arena  w7here  Christian 
citizens  are  called  upon  to  combat  them,  with 
their  literary  annex,  are  always  reconnoitering, 
with  a  view  to  discover  the  surest  point  of  attack. 
They  find  in  the  American  Sunday  the  Gibraltar 
of  law  and  order.  Hence  the  battle  rages  around 
this  rampart. 

God  commands  us  to  set  apart  a  seventh  portion 
of  time  to  religious  uses.  These  consecrated 
hours  are  named  the  Lord' s  Day .  This  day  is 
the  old  Jewish  Sabbath  transferred  by  the  author¬ 
ity  of  inspired  apostles  and  the  practice  of  the 
Apostolic  Church  to  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
and  it  carries  the  selfsame  sanction  of  the  Deca¬ 
logue,  which  hallowed  the  seventh  day  under  the 
Mosaic  dispensation.  Our  Christian  forefathers  in¬ 
corporated  it  in  the  public  law  of  America.  In  legal 
language  it  is  dies  7ion  —  does  not  exist  for  secular 
business  and  pleasure.  On  the  Cord’s  Day  the 
National  and  State  Legislatures  hold  no  sessions, 
the  higher  courts  do  not  sit,  the  exchanges  are 

closed,  the  banks  are  shut,  places  of  amusement 

142. 


THIS  AMERICAN  SUNDAY. 


T43 


are,  as  a  rule,  barred  and  bolted.  It  is  God’s 
stop  day  for  mankind.  Enter  a  factory  just  before 
the  dinner-hour.  The  whizzing  of  wheels,  the 
rattling  of  shuttles,  the  rumble  of  heavy  machin¬ 
ery  —  the.se  sounds,  with  the  rapid  motion  of  every¬ 
thing  around,  are  overwhelming.  The  building- 
shakes  as  under  the  tread  of  an  earthquake.  Sud¬ 
denly,  on  the  ringing  of  a  bell,  the  engine  stops, 
and  all  is  still.  Such  is  the  Eord’s  Day  in  the 
great  factory  of  human  toil.  Its  sanitary  value  is 
unspeakably  great.  It  acts  as  an  equalizer  of  the 
disturbed  system.  Its  moral  value  is  even  greater. 
Overtaxed  worker,  thou  may’st  pause  !  Anxious 
brain,  tranquilize  thyself!  Exhausted  nature, 
recruit  thy  powers  !  Poor  groveler,  look  up  and 
worship  ! 

Such  is  the  Sabbath  in  the  purpose  of  its  insti¬ 
tution.  Such  it  was  in  the  pradtice  of  the  earlier 
Hebrews.  It  was  a  sacred  pause  in  the  ordinary 
labor  by  which  bread  was  earned.  The  curse  of 
the  fall  was  suspended  for  a  day.  Nay,  one- 
seventh  part  of  time  was  redeemed  and  new-con¬ 
secrated  to  human  welfare.  Having  spent  this 
Divine  space  in  the  remembrance  and  recital  of 
God’s  mercies,  the  Hebrew  had  a  fresh  start  in  his 
course  of  labor.  Joy  was  the  keynote  of  the 
Mosaic  Sabbath.  It  was  a  day  of  special  reli¬ 
gious  worship  in  the  sandtuary.  It  was  a  day  of 
special  ethical  instruction  in  the  home.  Eater, 


i44 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


the  Pharisees  invented  a  legion  of  restrictions  re¬ 
specting  the  Sabbath,  of  which  we  find  nothing  in 
the  original  institution  and  observance.  The 
Pharisaic  Sabbath  was  fantastic  and  arbitrary  —  a 
burden  “  grievous  to  be  borne.”  Unhappily,  the 
Puritans  —  moral  giants,  the  saviors  of  liberty  in 
England,  as  even  Hume,  the  Tory  historian, 
admits,  in  most  respects  ahead  of  their  age,  yet 
here  in  fault  —  borrowed  their  conception  of  the 
Sabbath  from  the  Pharisees.  They  resurreCted 
and  revitalized  many  of  the  old  dead  prohibitions 
which  Christ  himself  had  condemned  ;  and  these 
unscriptural,  man-made  restrictions  they  enaCted 
into  law,  and  imposed  on  the  neck  of  reluClant 
men  and  women  as  a  yoke.  In  this  way  the 
Lord’s  Day  was  obscured  and  discredited  in  Eng¬ 
land  and  in  New  England,  nor  has  it  yet  recov¬ 
ered  from  the  misconception  created  by  the  sad 
mistake  of  those  good  people. 

We  are  to  go  back  to  the  Mosaic  institution, 
and,  above  all,  to  the  precept  and  practice  of  the 
Lord  of  the  day  and  of  His  disciples,  for  our 
methods  of  observing  the  Sunday.  In  doing  this 
w7e  discover  that  four  points  are  involved. 

i.  The  Lord’s  Day  is  to  be  an  occasion  for  pub¬ 
lic  worship.  The  Jews  so  regarded  it.  This  was 
Christ’s  own  praClice;  “  And,  as  His  custom  was," 
affirms  St.  Luke,  “  He  went  into  the  synagogue 
on  the  Sabbath  Da}r.  ’  ’  After  the  change  from  the 


THE)  AMERICAN  SUNDAY. 


J45 


seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  the  Apostolic 
Church  was  equally  scrupulous  not  to  forsake  this 
assembling  together. 

2.  Sunday  is  a  home  day.  This  is  implied  in 
the  very  name  —  rest- day.  Households  come  to¬ 
gether.  The  husband  and  wife  leisurely  enjoy 
the  gifts  of  God.  The  father,  whirled  away 
through  the  work-a-day  week,  on  Sunday  gathers 
his  children  around  his  knees.  A  large  part  of 
the  time  may  be  rightly  devoted  to  domestic  re¬ 
union  and  intercourse. 

3.  Worship  and  the  family  being  provided  for, 
the  kindly  offices  of  friendships  and  neighborhood 
justly  claim  attention.  There  can  be  no  valid 
objection  to  an  hour  of  sober  recreation  among 
friends  and  neighbors,  to  the  interchange  of 
thought,  to  a  comparison  of  experiences,  to  the 
cultivation  of  our  .social  nature,  if  we  do  not  neg- 
ledt  other  and  more  important  interests. 

4.  Since  on  Sunday  we  are  set  free  from  cares 
and  duties  which  absorb  our  time  and  attention 
through  the  other  days  of  the  week,  we  should 
be  eager,  like  our  Tord,  to  run  upon  errands  of 
peace  and  good  will — to  visit  the  sick,  instruct 
the  ignorant,  succor  the  needy,  and  do  works  of 
mercy. 

A  Sunday  thus  spent,  parti y  in  God’s  house, 
partly  in  our  own  dear  home,  partly  among  friends 
and  neighbors,  and  partly  in  good  works,  will 


146 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


provide  enough  for  us  to  do  that  is  fit  and  decor¬ 
ous,  and  will  leave  little  time  and  less  inclination 
for  sinful,  or  even  questionable,  practices.  A 
habit  of  so  passing  the  day,  when  once  formed, 
will  make  us  happy  in  it,  and  a  source  of  happi¬ 
ness  to  others.  It  would  supply  us  with  occupa¬ 
tion,  but  of  a  different  kind  from,  and  of  a  higher 
kind  than,  the  bread-and-butter  hunt  of  the 
other  days.  Soon  we  would  find  ourselves  anti¬ 
cipating  its  advent  with  enthusiasm.  The  perni¬ 
cious  notion  would  be  banished  forever  that  this 
day  is  a  restriction  set  upon  our  liberty,  an  un¬ 
welcome  invasion  of  our  time,  a  sacrifice  to  be 
offered,  and  a  cross  to  be  borne.  The  Lord’s 
Day  would  be  recognized  as  one  of  God’s  best 
gifts  to  man  —  as  the  couch  of  toil,  a  truce  with 
care,  the  sunshine  of  the  week,  poverty’s  birth¬ 
right,  and  the  soul's  market-day. 

The  practical  question  is  this :  Possessing 
such  a  day  by  the  Divine  commandment,  in  the 
settled  custom  of  the  nation,  and  in  the  long- 
established  recognition  and  sanction  of  public 
law,  are  we  ready  to  surrender  it,  or  essentially 
to  change  its  character  ?  Of  course,  legislation 
cannot,  and  should  not,  bind  indifferent  or  hostile 
people  to  the  Christian  observance  of  the  Sunday. 
But  it  does,  and  ought  to,  secure  for  all  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  so  to  observe  it,  and  to  defend  all  observ¬ 
ers  in  their  observance. 


THE:  AMERICAN  SUNDAY. 


147 


The  assault  upon  the  American  Sunday  is  made 
by  four  very  different  but  co-operating  classes. 
The  first  class  consists  of  the  vicious,  who  covet 
this  day  above  all  other  days  for  vice,  because  it 
is  the  common  day  of  leisure  ;  and  it  follows  Sat¬ 
urday,  which  is  the  usual  pay-day,  so  that  the 
masses  are  more  likely  to  have  money  on  Sunday 
than  on  any  other  day  in  the  week. 

The  second  class  is  composed  of  that  part  of 
our  population  which  is  of  foreign  birth  and 
breeding.  Cradled  in  a  civilization  antagonistic 
to  ours,  brought  up  to  look  on  Sunday  either  as  a 
work-day  or  as  a  mere  holiday,  they  are  restless 
under  the  wholesome  restraints  which  distinguish 
it  in  the  United  States.  Some  of  them  wish  to 
use  it  for  pleasure,  others  for  business.  And  be¬ 
cause  our  customs  and  laws  discountenance  such 
abuses,  they  hate  a  legalized  Sunday. 

The  third  class  is  made  up  of  recreant  Ameri¬ 
cans  of  wealth  and  social  position,  who  ape 
French  manners.  When  they  die  these  Europe¬ 
anized  Yankees  think  they  will  go  to  Paris  —  like 
a  certain  cardinal,  who  said  he  had  rather  have 
his  part  in  Paris  than  in  Paradise.  Accustomed 
to  borrow  the  fashions  of  their  raiment  and  the 
seasoning  of  their  food,  as  well  as  such  dubious 
literature  as  they  are  capable  of  mastering,  from 
a  land  in  which  the  Ford’s  Day  is  conspicuously 
disesteemed,  as  Bishop  Potter,  of  New  York, 


14S 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


pointed  out  some  time  ago,  they  have  recently 
taken  to  borrowing  its  Sunday  customs.  With 
abundant  leisure  all  the  week  to  do  nothing,  they 
think  they  can  not  better  employ  the  Lord’s  Day 
than  by  making  it  the  occasion  of  their  most 
ostentatious  pleasure-seeking. 

The  fourth  class,  very  small  but  very  noisy  and 
very  active,  is  congregated  in  a  knot  of  infidels 
and  agnostics,  organized  into  a  propaganda  called 
“The  American  Secular  Union,”  one  of  whose 
avowed  objects  is  the  destruction  of  the  Lord's 
Day. 

Unhappily,  these  four  classes  are  powerfully 
reenforced  by  the  daily  press  of  the  country,  d  he 
Sunday  editions  of  the  newspapers  constitute  the 
most  formidable  and  the  most  insiduous  peril  ol 
the  day.  Kveu  church-goers  are  often  beguiled 
by  the  attractive  display  they  make  as  they  are 
served  up  hot  with  the  Sunday  breakfast  the 
largest  and  the  most  interesting  of  the  week  —  into 
.skipping  Divine  service,  in  order  to  learn  about 
the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  Aside  from 
their  practice,  the  journals  openly  array  them¬ 
selves  against  the  American  Sunday,  sometimes 
in  the  way  of  diredt  assault,  oftener  by  innu¬ 
endo.  Some  newspapers  profess  to  be  indifferent 
—  like  the  priest  of  whom  Luther  tells,  who, 
when  the  Papists  told  him  to  pray  in  one  form, 
and  the  Protestants  in  another,  ended  by  repeat- 


THE  AMERICAN  SUNDAY.  1 49 

ing  the  alphabet,  and  begging  the  Lord  to  frame 
a  prayer  agreeable  to  himself.  But  this  affedled 
neutrality  reveals  the  unfriendliness. 

We  do  not  write  this  in  the  way  of  complaint. 
It  is  to  be  expected.  As  it  is  the  fundtion  of  the 
stage  “to  hold  the  mirror  up  to  nature,’’  so  it 
is  the  function  of  the  daily  press  to  reflect  time 
and  sense.  A  newspaper  is  an  instantaneous 
photograph  of  the  world  at  the  moment  of  publi¬ 
cation.  A  photographer  might  as  well  be  ex- 
pedted  to  be  a  leader  of  thought  as  a  journal.  In 
the  one  case,  as  in  the  other,  the  business  is  pidture- 
taking,  not  leadership.  The  press  borrows  its 
tone  from  its  readers.  Earl  Russell  used  to  say 
that  it  was  with  a  politician  as  with  a  snake  —  the 
tail  moves  the  head.  When  a  newspaper  seems 
to  lead  it  resembles  that  captain  of  militia  in  the 
Civil  War  who  ordered  his  men  to  charge,  and 
then  got  behind  the  nearest  stone  wall  to  see  how 
it  worked. 

No  one  denies  the  ability  and  influence  of  the 
great  dailies;  nor  can  it  be  said  that  they  are  not, 
as  a  rule,  edited  in  the  interest  of  good  govern¬ 
ment.  But  they  are  necessarily  worldly.  They 
speak  of  the  world,  to  the  world,  for  the  world. 
When  the  world  is  Christian,  they  will  be  Chris¬ 
tian.  Until  then  we  must  expedt  them  to  mirror 
the  prevailing  sentiment  of  their  constituency. 

Fretting  under  the  mild  restrictions  of  the 


150  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

American  Sunday,  and  seeking  for  some  decent 
pretext  for  an  attack  upon  it,  the  four  classes 
described,  aided  by  the  daily  press,  have  hit  upon 
a  taking  war-cry.  For  a  number  of  years  past 
they  have  been  demanding  the  opening  of  the 
public  libraries  and  museums.  Are  not  these 
public  institutions  ?  they  ask  triumphantly.  And 
is  not  Sunday  a  public  holiday  ?  Then  why  not 
allow  the  poor  people,  over- worked,  and  without 
opportunity  six  days  in  the  week,  to  feast  their  eyes 
on  the  master-pieces  of  art,  and  to  improve  their 
minds  by  reading  the  great  writers,  on  their  one 
day  of  leisure?  Such  is  the  reasoning  of  these 
“  friends  of  the  people.”  Misled  by  its  specious¬ 
ness,  a  number  of  towns  have  thrown  their  mu¬ 
seums  and  libraries  open  on  the  Sunday. 

Christian  citizens  oppose  this  policy,  because 
the  fourth  commandment  forbids  it  :  ‘  ‘  Remember 
the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy.  Six  days  shalt 
thou  labor,  and  do  all  thy  work  :  But  the  seventh 
day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God  ;  in  it 
thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son, 
nor  thy  daughter,  thy  man-servant  nor  thy  maid¬ 
servant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is 
within  thy  gates.” 

A  Syrian  convert  was  urged  by  his  employer  to 
work  on  the  Lord’s  day.  He  declined.  “  But,” 
said  the  master,  “  does  not  your  Bible  say  that  if 
a  man  has  an  ass  or  an  ox  that  falls  into  a  pit  on 


THE;  AMERICAN  SUNDAY.  1 5  1 

the  Sabbath  day,  he  may  pull  him  out?"  To 
which  the  convert  replied:  “  Yes  ;  but  if  the  ass 
has  a  habit  of  falling  into  the  same  pit  every  Sab¬ 
bath,  then  the  man  should  either  fill  up  the  pit  or 
sell  the  ass.” 

Patriotic  citizens,  whether  Christians  or  not, 
ought  to  withstand  these  insidious  assaults.  For 
they  are  directed  against  immemorial  American 
usage  and  tradition.  Our  observance  of  Sunday 
is  as  distinctively  American,  as  the  public  schools 
and  the  ballot-box.  Imagine  the  indignation  that 
would  blast  the  man  or  woman  who  should  pro¬ 
pose  the  abolition  of  the  free-school  system  ;  or 
who  should  lay  a  sacrilegious  hand  upon  that  ark 
of  political  liberty,  the  ballot-box.  Yet  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Sunday  is  just  as  distinctively  an  American 
institution. 

Philanthropic  citizens  should  rally  to  the  de¬ 
fense  of  the  Sunday.  It  is  a  sanitary  rampart. 
This  phase  of  it  concerns  everyone  —  Jew  and 
Gentile,  believer  and  agnostic.  The  religious  as¬ 
pect  of  the  day  depends  for  its  maintenance  upon 
the  individual  Christian.  The  Sunday,  as  a  rest 
day,  appeals  to  the  whole  community.  One  of 
the  oldest  and  purest  of  Supreme  Court  Judges, 
Justice  Field,  has  forcibly  said:  "  Laws  .setting- 
aside  Sunday  as  a  day  of  rest  are  upheld,  not  from 
any  right  of  the  government  to  legislate  for  the 
promotion  of  religious  observances,  but  from  the 


152 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


right  to  protect  all  persons  from  the  physical  and 
moral  debasement  which  comes  from  uninterrupt¬ 
ed  labor.  Such  laws  have  always  been  deemed 
beneficent  and  merciful  laws,  especially  to  the 
poor  and  dependent,  to  the  laborers  in  our  fac¬ 
tories  and  workshops,  and  in  the  heated  rooms  of 
our  cities;  and  their  validity  has  been  sustained 
by  the  highest  courts  of  the  United  States.” 

The  opening  of  the  museums  and  libraries 
would  deprive  the  custodians  of  these  institutions 
of  their  Sunday  relief  from  labor,  and  chain  them 
like  galley-slaves  to  the  oar.  The  reply  sometimes 
offered,  that  it  would  be  no  hardship,  if  these  in¬ 
stitutions  were  closed  on  another  day  of  the  week 
for  as  many  hours  as  they  might  be  opened  on  the 
Sunday,  is  unsatisfactory  for  two  reasons  :  first, 
because  it  would  hurt  the  conscience  of  Christian 
employes  to  work  on  the  Lord’s  Day,  and  next, 
because,  presumably,  to  all  the  employes,  as  to 
other  people,  Sunday  has  a  value  possessed  by  no 
other  day.  Then  only  can  they  meet  all  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  their  own  households,  then  only  can  they 
join  in  the  public  worship  of  God,  then  only  can 
they  share  in  a  common  boon.  To  say  to  these 
employes  —  We  can  not  give  you  Sunday,  set 
apart  by  the  laws  and  custom  of  the  land  as  a 
common  rest  day  ;  we  really  must  work  you  on 
Sunday,  but  you  can  have  a  slice  off  of  Thursday 
—  this  is  manifest  injustice  and  oppression.  It 


THE  AMERICAN  SUNDAY. 


153 


can  only  be  justified,  as  the  Sunday  opening  of  the 
drug  stores,  or  the  work  of  the  physician  is  justi¬ 
fied,  on  the  ground  of  public  necessity. 

Those  citizens  who,  for  any  reason,  value  the 
Sunday,  may  well  oppose  this  scheme,  because  it 
has  failed  always  and  everywhere.  The  Mercan¬ 
tile  Library,  and  the  Cooper  Institute  reading- 
room,  in  New  York,  were  opened  some  years  ago. 
They  were  poorly  patronized.  I11  the  case  of  the 
Mercantile  Library  it  was  found  that  books  drawn 
011  Sunday  could  be  drawn  on  Saturday  without 
serious  inconvenience.  At  the  Cooper  Institute 
it  was  speedily  discovered  that  the  reading-room 
was  made  a  bummers’  roost  by  loungers,  who 
turned  into  it  to  get  out  of  the  cold,  and  nodded 
and  dozed  while  pretending  to  read. 

The  Columbian  Fair,  in  Chicago,  was  opened 
on  Sundays  against  the  protest  of  the  Christian 
public,  in  breach  of  public  law,  and  after  accept¬ 
ing  a  congressional  donation  conditioned  upon  its 
closure.  The  opening  was,  as  it  deserved  to  be, 
a  complete  failure,  both  in  attendance  and  in 
profits.  The  poorer  classes,  on  whose  behalf  the 
greedy  directors  professed  to  open  the  doors,  pre¬ 
ferred  to  spend  their  Sundays  in  the  beer  gardens 
of  Chicago,  or  in  the  open  fields  beyond  the  city. 
The  beautiful  grounds  of  Jackson  Park,  and  the 
vast  aisles  of  the  buildings,  so  animated  on  other 
days,  were  peopled  only  with  solitude  on  those 


*54 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


open  Sundays.  Indeed,  wherever  and  whenever 
such  experiments  have  been  tried,  they  have  be¬ 
gun  in  fraud  and  ended  in  failure.  Why  aggra¬ 
vate  these  frauds  and  multiply  the  failures  ? 

It  has  been  contended  that  the  museums  and 
libraries  should  be  opened  on  Sunday  in  the  in¬ 
terest  of  popular  education  —  meaning  intellectual 
and  esthetic  development.  But  education  is  a 
comprehensive  term.  It  properly  includes  the 
moral  as  well  as  the  mental  faculties  —  the  whole 
being.  Intellectualism  alone  is  awry  and  danger¬ 
ous.  It  should  seem  that  every  scholar  must 
know  that  the  study  of  art  does  not  necessarily 
promote  morality.  Neither  does  literary  pro¬ 
ficiency.  We  all  know,  or  know  of,  artists  and 
litterati  who  are  more  heathenish  than  the  heathen 
—  more  Philistine  than  Goliath  of  Gath.  The 
very  chief  of  the  esthetes  in  our  day,  Oscar 
Wilde,  was  imprisoned  for  a  crime  too  base  to 
name.  In  Athens  the  artistic  and  literary  period 
was  precisely  the  epoch  of  grossest  degeneracy. 
Demosthenes  thundered,  but  the  people  quailed 
and  surrendered  to  Philip.  They  knew  which 
way  a  Greek  accent  ought  to  slant,  but  neither 
knew,  nor  cared  to  know,  how  to  keep  the  per¬ 
pendicular  themselves.  They  worshiped  pictures 
and  statues,  poems  and  orations,  and  despised 
men  and  women.  What  is  true  of  Greece  is 
equally  true  of  ancient  Rome  —  which  was  ener- 


THK  AMERICAN  SUNDAY. 


155 


vated  by  what  moderns  call  culture.  And  so  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  The  dreariest  midnight  of 
immorality  occurred  when  art  and  literature  were 
most  flourishing  under  Pope  Leo  X.  and  the 
Florentine  Medici.  Take  Paris  to-day.  ’Tis  a 
beautiful  body  without  a  soul  —  like  Hawthorne’s 
hero  in  ‘  ‘  The  Marble  Fawn.  ’  ’  Art  and  literature 
are  lofty  as  Mont  Blanc  ;  morality  is  as  low  down 
as  the  Vale  of  Chamouni.  Art  labors  to  decorate 
vice,  and  literature  exists  to  pen  bon  mots  against 
virtue. 

What,  then  !  Shall  art  and  literature  be  done 
away  ?  Not  .so.  Both  may  be,  and  often  aie, 
handmaids  of  morality.  But  as  substitutes  for 
morality,  or  as  teachers  of  morality,  they  are  the 
detected  frauds  of  history.  What  Sunday  should 
teach  is  religion.  When  it  is  proposed  to  open  the 
museums  and  libraries  as  rivals  of  the  churches, 
and  to  preach  estheticism  and  intelledtualism  in¬ 
stead  of  Christianity  on  Sunday,  it  is  time  to 
point  out  the  defedts  of  such  a  scheme  of  educa¬ 
tion. 

The  truth  is  that  this  whole  claim  is  dishonest. 
Those  who  make  it,  instead  of  seeking  to  be¬ 
friend  the  people,  would,  in  fadt,  deprive  them  of 
their  Sunday  altogether.  1  heir  real  purpose  is 
self-advantage.  They  intend  to  introduce  lieie 
and  naturalize  the  Sunday  of  continental  Europe 
_ the  Paris  and  Vienna  Sunday.  Some  of  these 


156  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

* 

special  pleaders  want  to  push  their  business  on 
Sunday,  and  to  get  an  extra  day’s  work  out  of 
their  employes  for  the  wages  they  now  pay  for  the 
labor  of  six  days.  Others  desire  to  Coney -Isla?idize 
the  Sunday  —  to  fuddle  it  with  beer  and  desecrate 
it  with  the  clatter  of  glasses  clicking  an  accom¬ 
paniment  to  the  coarse  melodies  of  the  opera 
bouffe.  O11  this  ground  Archbishop  Corrigan,  of 
New  York,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  in  a  letter  written  some  time 
ago,  did  not  hesitate  to  condemn  the  attempt. 
“  As  I  understand  it,”  he  said,  “the  movement 
for  opening  the  museums  and  libraries  on  Sunday, 
though  advocated  in  the  interest  of  the  working 
classes,  is  really  the  entering  wedge  of  a  larger 
and  insiduous  design,  which  aims  at  throwing  open 
also  on  that  day  the  theaters,  drinking-saloons, 
and  other  places  of  amusement,  and  so  gradually 
to  do  away  with  everything  that  gives  Sunday  a 
sacred  character.  To  destroy  the  general  relig¬ 
ious  observance  of  Sunday  would  be  a  national 
calamity.” 

’Tis  a  significant  fact  that  these  appeals  never 
issue  from  the  working  classes.  They  are  shrewd 
and  intelligent  enough  to  understand  that  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  Sunday  as  a  rest- day  depends  upon  the 
continued  recognition  of  its  sanctity.  Destroy 
this  and  the  Sunday  would  soon  be  lost  in  the 
huddle  of  secular  days  and  concerns.  First, 


THE  AMERICAN  SUNDAY. 


157 


pleasure  would  degrade  it,  then  greed  would  put 
an  end  even  to  pleasure.  Such  is  the  history  oi 
Sunday  secularization.  Therefore,  those  laborers 
who  value  the  rest  which  Sunday  brings,  look 
with  suspicion  upon  these  attempts  to  secularize 
the  day.  “When  the  true  conception  of  the 
ford’s  Day  yields,”  remarks  the  Rev.  Dr.  C.  S. 
Robinson,  “everything  religious  seems  to  glide 
away  down  stream  with  it.  A  curious  mixture  of 
laxity  and  levity  perverts  even  names  and  things 
into  grotesque  forms  of  presentation.  In  Paris 
there  is  one  street  called  the  Rue  de  Paradis  — 
street  of  Paradise,  and  there  is  another  called  Rue 
cR Enfer  — street  of  Hell.  O11  every  Sunday  both 
of  the.se  are  thronged  with  miscellaneous  hosts  of 
thoughtless  people  who  have  apparently  just 
bought  their  gay  garments  at  a  store  called  a  l  En¬ 
fant  Jesu  —  the  infant  Jesus,  or,  at  the  rival  store 
opposite,  called  au  bon  Diable — the  good  devil. 
There  they  promenade  and  exhibit  themselves, 
and  laugh  and  drink  and  sing,  while  the  foui- 
cent  candles  that  they  furnish  to  do  their  vica¬ 
rious  Sabbath  worship  in  the  vacant  churches, 
burn  and  flare  and  smoke  before  the  image  of  the 
negledted  Virgin  Mary.  Does  anybody  want  this 
hollowness  and  confusion  domesticated  in  Amer¬ 
ica?” 

It  is  urged  that  the  Sunday  is  already  largely 
secularized;  that  Sunday  travel,  Sunday  exeur- 


158 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


sions,  Sunday  concerts,  Sunday  journals,  Sunday 
bicyclists,  abound.  Well,  two  wrongs  do  not 
make  a  right,  any  more  than  one  virtue  and  two 
vices  make  a  saint.  Is  the  fadt  that  the  American 
Sunday  is  desecrated  in  some  directions  a  reason 
why  we  should  fall  to  and  dishonor  it  in  all  direc¬ 
tions  ?  Is  not  this  like  saying  that  because  one 
member  of  the  family  has  the  small-pox,  therefore 
the  entire  household  should  be  infeCled  ?  When 
one  member  of  the  family  has  the  small-pox,  the 
Board  of  Health  steps  in  and  enforces  a  quaran¬ 
tine.  Preekely  so  the  fadt  that  the  Sunday  is  al¬ 
ready  widely  secularized  is  a  fresh  argument  to 
impel  Christian  citizens  to  use  every  possible 
means,  moral  and  legal,  to  maintain  and  strengthen 
the  sacred  barriers  that  remain.  Commanded  by 
God,  grouted  in  the  habits  and  in  the  statutes  of 
the  nation,  shall  we  not  prize  the  Sunday,  both  as 
a  divine  and  as  an  American  institution?  As, 
under  God,  our  fathers  gave  it  to  us,  so  let  us 
hand  it  down  unimpaired  to  our  children.  In  the 
past  it  has  been,  in  the  present  it  is,  and  in  the 
future  it  will  be,  the  creator  and  conservator  of 
the  noblest  features  of  individual  and  national 
character. 


IX. 


relation  of  young  peoples’  societies  to 

CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


As  Wellington,  at  Waterloo,  sighed  for  the 
coining  of  Blucher,  and  when  he  came  speedily 
won  the  battle,  so  have  the  veteran  fighters  for 
civic  righteousness  longed  for  the  appearance  of 
the  gallant  young  soldiers  of  the  cross,  who  are 
now  rushing  into  the  arena  with  ringing  hurrahs 
and  waving  banners,  and  with  this  timely  reen¬ 
forcement  they  too  will  conquer. 

When  Francis  E.  Clark  solved  the  problem  of 
setting  the  young  converts  of  the  Williston  Con¬ 
gregational  Church,  in  Portland,  Maine,  at  woik, 
he  solved  it  for  all  America.  To-day  there  is 
hardly  an  individual  church  which  has  not  its 
Young  Peoples’  Society.  And  these  local  soci¬ 
eties  are  compacted  into  vast  .state  and  national  01  - 
ganizations,  denominational  and  intei -denomina¬ 
tional,  which  are  a  recognized  power  at  present, 
and  which  will  dominate  the  future.  Most  of 
these  local  societies  —  Christian  Endeavor  Unions, 
Epworth  Leagues,  Baptist  Young  Peoples’ 


l6o  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

Unions,  Westminster  Leagues,  and  others,  a 
goodly  and  ever-swelling  list  —  already  have 
Christian  Citizenship  Committees,  or  will  soon 
have  them.  Their  existence  presupposes  an  in¬ 
terest  in  civic  affairs.  The  practical  question  is. 
along  what  lines  shall  this  interest  move  into 
adtion  ? 

The  first  step  must  be  study.  Each  committee 
on  Christian  citizenship  ought  to  make  itself  a 
center  of  civic  intelligence.  Little  can  be  done, 
and  nothing  effectively,  without  knowledge.  The 
literature  of  Christian  civics  is  as  yet  small  ;  but 
such  books  and  chapters,  such  periodicals  and 
pamphlets  as  bear  upon  this  new  .science  should 
find  a  place  on  the  shelves  of  a  convenient  library, 
and  be  summarized  at  the  meetings  from  time  to 
time  in  addresses  or  essays.  Ledtures,  too,  by 
acknowledged  experts  should  be  made  a  feature 
of  the  winter’s  work  —  ledtures  which  should 
instrudt  and  inspire  not  only  the  local  body,  but 
the  community. 

The  sub-topics  for  thought  and  adtion  compre¬ 
hend  : 

i.  Municipal  Reform. —  Since  the  partial  re¬ 
demption  of  New  York,  Chicago,  Boston,  Pitts¬ 
burg,  and  other  populous  centers,  public  attention 
has  been  diredted  to  the  increasing  importance  of 
cities,  to  their  peculiar  perils,  to  their  domination 
by  the  worst  classes  through  the  neglect  of  the 


YOUNG  PKOPUKS’  SOCIETIES.  l6l 

better  classes,  to  the  possibility  of  their  political 
salvation  —  which  many  have  doubted  until  re¬ 
cently  —  and  to  the  continental  necessity  for  muni¬ 
cipal  reform. 

Young  people  who  objeCt  to  going  into  politics 
can  and  should  exert  their  influence  to  take  town 
matters  out  of  politics,  to  defeat  incompetent  or 
corrupt  candidates,  to  create  a  healthy  public 
opinion,  and  to  put  this  warmly  and  executively 
behind  a  faithful,  unseCtarian  and  non-partizan 
administration  of  affairs. 

L,aw  and  Order. —  Kvery  saloon,  even  though 
licensed,  is  a  frequent  and  flagrant  offender  in  one 
way  or  another  against  the  law.  Kvery  house  of 
ill-fame  is  illegal.  Kvery  gambling  den  is  banned 
by  statute.  All  need  watching,  not  only  by  offi¬ 
cers,  who  are  often  in  collusion  with  them,  but  by 
incorruptible  friends  of  law  and  order.  If  a  town 
were  divided  into  small  distridts,  and  each  dis¬ 
trict  were  put  under  the  supervision  of  one  or 
more  Christian  citizenship  committees,  a  vigilant 
patrol  would  be  possible  and  easy. 

2.  Social  Conditions. —  Here,  again,  atten¬ 
tion  should  be  paid  to  proper  territorial  divi¬ 
sions.  Take  only  so  much  ground  as  can  be 
effectively  covered.  Riddle  this  with  light.  Ket 
Christian  influence  radiate  out  to  help  and  heal 
in  sanitary,  economic  and  domestic  ways  of  work. 


i62 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


What  ignorance  does  not  know,  what  indifference 
does  not  care  to  ask  for,  what  poverty  can  not  get, 
Christian  workers,  well-informed  and  determined, 
and  with  proper  backing,  can  command.  As  the 
laws  now  stand,  there  is  no  reason,  save  a  crimi¬ 
nal  public  preoccupation  and  indifference,  why 
child-labor  .should  be  allowed,  or  why  sweating- 
rooms  should  exist  as  sources  of  epidemic  dis¬ 
ease,  or  why  the  homes  of  the  poor  should  not  be 
as  wholesome  as  those  of  the  rich,  or  why  rascally 
employers  should  not  be  compelled  to  pay  deserv¬ 
ing  employes,  with  the  addition  of  the  cost  of 
collection  to  the  sum  owed,  or  why  the  young 
should  not  be  taught  in  manual  training-schools 
how  to  make  an  honest  living,  or  why  public 
parks  should  not  be  opened  in  congested  quarters 
of  great  towns,  so  that  poverty  shall  be  able  to 
breathe,  or  why  working  people  of  both  sexes 
.should  not  be  provided  with  cheap  but  decent 
lodgings,  or  why  cooperation  in  a  hundred  direc¬ 
tions  should  not  be  encouraged  —  cooperation, 
which,  as  some  thinkers  believe,  contains  the 
promise  and  potency  of  a  satisfactory  solution  to 
all  concerned  of  the  vexed  problem  of  capital  and 
labor.  Much  could  be  done  through  local  cen¬ 
ters  of  consecrated  effort  to  secure  public  baths 
and  lavatories,  outing  clubs  for  sickly  mothers  and 
children,  fresh-air  funds,  and,  in  general,  the  best 
available  facilities  for  building  up  a  sound  body. 


YOUNG  PEOPLES’  SOCIETIES.  163 

Christians  who  possess  this  knowledge  are  trus¬ 
tees,  and  hold  it  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  have 
it  not. 

The  important  thing  is  to  personalize  duty. 
The  measure  of  responsibility  is  power.  Christians 
are  responsible  for  the  continued  existence  of 
abuses  and  nuisances  which  they  can  abate  or 
abolish  with  proper  effort.  The  question,  “Am 
I  my  brother’s  keeper  ?  ”  did  not  condone  Cain’s 
sin  against  his  brother,  nor  will  it  condone  ours. 
Bread-riots  and  work-riots,  labor  outbreaks,  and 
the  revolt  of  those  who  have  nothing  against 
those  who  have  everything,  shaking  the  social 
fabric  as  by  an  earthquake,  and  imperiling  the 
possessions  and  safety  of  men  and  women  who  sit 
in  high  places  —  are  rude  but  necessary  interrup¬ 
tions  which  compel  inquiry,  and  press  home  upon 
us  the  truth  of  human  solidarity,  our  common  re¬ 
lationship,  and  our  common  concern  in  the  social 
state. 

Sanitation  will  cure  many  ills  of  the  body  poli¬ 
tic.  Authorities  assert  that  forty  per  cent,  of  the 
di.stress  among  the  poor  is  due  to  drunkenness. 
But  drunkenness  itself  is  a  result  of  bad  environ¬ 
ment.  Overcrowded  and  stuffy  homes  drive  men 
to  the  saloon  for  room  and  recreation.  The  saloons 
are  the  club -rooms  of  the  poor  —  one  secret  of 
their  vitality.  A  number  of  years  ago  a  New 
York  legislative  committee  confessed  that  “  eer- 


164 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


tain  conditions  and  associations  of  human  life  and 
habitation  are  the  prolific  parents  of  corresponding 
habits  and  morals,”  and  recommended  “  the  pre¬ 
vention  of  drunkenness  by  securing  for  every  one 
a  clean  and  comfortable  home.  ’  ’  Against  dangers 
from  without  our  system  of  government  offers  safe 
shelter  and  defense.  Against  dangers  from  within 
it  can  only  protedt  itself  by  uniting  all  hearts  in  a 
common  brotherhood  of  love,  based  on  justice  and 
contentment,  Cowell’ s  question,  put  long  ago, 
repeats  itself  in  deeper  tones  to-day  — 

‘  ‘ - Think  ye  that  building  shall  endure 

Which  shelters  the  noble  and  crushes  the  poor  ?  ’  ’ 

Whoever  would  have  an  answer  may  find  it 
in  the  French  revolution. 

As  Mordecai  is  persuading  Esther  to  undertake 
the  salvation  of  the  Jews  imperiled  by  the  king’s 
decree,  said  to  her,  ‘  ‘  Who  knoweth  whether  thou 

art  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  this  ?  ’  ’ 
so  we  would  ask  whether  the  young  people’s  so¬ 
cieties  have  not  been  divinely  raised  up  to  meet 
present  emergencies  ?  Older  Christians  are  chained 
in  prejudice,  bound  to  party,  habituated  to  the 
existing  situation,  and  callous  through  custom. 
The  juniors  are  filled  with  the  new  spirit  of  the 
new  day,  and  are  fired  by  its  larger  hope.  They 
are  free  from  prejudice,  care  nothing  for  party, 


YOUNG  PEOPLES’  SOCIETIES.  1 65 

save  as  an  instrument,  and  are  sympathetic  with 
the  sin  and  sorrow  around  about  them,  both 
through  youth  and  through  principle.  Facing 
the  questions  of  the  day,  may  they  grapple  with 
them  as  Elijah  grappleo  with  the  questions  of  his 
day,  and  answer  them  with  the  answer  which 
Christ  would  give. 


X. 


ORGANIZATION — BASIS,  OBJECTS,  AND  METHODS. 

In  every  age  Christianity  demands  a  special 
application  to  meet  characteristic  conditions.  The 
Apostolic  Church  was  occupied  in  laying  Chris¬ 
tian  foundations.  At  the  period  of  the  Reforma¬ 
tion  the  doCtrines  of  religion  needed  a  Biblical 
.statement  as  against  prevailing  heresies,  which 
masqueraded  in  the  garb  of  orthodoxy.  Under 
Wesley  and  Whitefield  a  new  demonstration  was 
given  of  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  revivify 
dead  forms  of  faith.  In  our  day,  the  mission  of 
the  church  is  largely  sociological. 

The  first  and  great  commandment,  love  to  God, 
has  not  been  over-emphasized,  but  the  second, 
love  to  our  neighbor,  has  been  under-emphasized. 
They  go  together.  Either  alone  is  a  half-part. 
The  first  results  in  pietism  ;  the  second  produces 
humanitarianism.  When  they  are  combined  we 
have  Christianity.  An  oarsman  using  but  one 
oar,  rows  in  a  circle,  with  both  oars,  he  pulls 
straight  and  forges  ahead.  Those  churches  which 
are  based  too  largely  on  the  love  of  God,  and 
those  other  churches  which  are  founded  exclus- 

166 


ORGANIZATION. 


167 


ively  on  the  love  of  man,  must  marry  and  beget 
good  works  towards  God  and  man. 

Dean  Hurlbert,  of  the  Chicago  Theological 
Seminary,  in  a  passage  of  rare  power,  remarks 
that  “  the  evangelical  church,  numbering  13,500,- 
000  communicants,  stoutly  denies  that  unaided 
human  power  can  save  this  country ,  and  as  stoutly 
affirms  that  Divine  power  present  in  Christianity 
can  perpetuate  it.  In  her  criticism  and  rejection 
of  other  agencies,  she  provokes  a  challenge  of  her 
own.  The  enemy  of  the  church,  appealing  to 
Christian  history,  seeks  to  discredit  her  claims  by 
showing  that  she  is  weakest  to-day  in  her  original 
strongholds,  and  strongest  in  lands  which  were 
then  unknown  ;  that  in  the  Roman  Kmpiie  she 
was  herself  submerged  in  a  baptized  heathenism, 
and  that,  after  a  trial  of  two  thousand  years, 
church  formality  and  spiritual  deadness  are  the 
blight  of  modern  France,  Italy,  Spain,  and  Gei- 
many.  What  assurance  is  there  that  history  is 
not  to  repeat  itself  in  the  Western  world  ?  The 
Americans  are  inclined  to  ‘  prove  all  things, 
Christianity  included.  She  does  not  go  unchal¬ 
lenged.  Certainly,  never  was  there  a  fairer 
chance  to  show  her  power  and  prove  her  claims. 
No  obnoxious  restrictions  are  put  upon  her.  She 
labors  under  no  arbitrary  and  unnatural  dis¬ 
advantages.  The  State  suffers  no  interference 
with  her  faith  or  worship.  The  Constitution  pro- 


i68 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


vides  that  ‘  no  religious  test  shall  ever  be  required 
as  a  qualification  to  any  office  of  public  trust 
under  the  United  States,’  and  that  ‘Congress 
shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  establishment  of 
religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof.’ 
A  code  of  ethics  whose  truth  and  worth  are  mani¬ 
fest  to  enlightened  reason  constitutes  that  ‘  gen¬ 
eral  Christianity,’  which  the  courts  have  held  to 
be  the  common  law  of  the  land.  Milton  said  : 

‘  Though  all  the  winds  of  doCtrine  were  let  loose 
upon  the  earth,  so  truth  be  among  them,  we  need 
not  fear.  Let  her  and  falsehood  grapple.  Who 
ever  knew  her  to  be  put  to  the  worst  in  a 
free  and  open  encounter  ?  ’  In  free  and  open 
America  Christianity  is  thrust  into  this  ‘  free 
and  open  encounter.  ’  Satanic  forces  are  seeking 
the  nation’s  ruin  ;  Christian  forces  are  set  for  her 
defense.  Force  faces  force.  The  issues  are 
joined.  The  conflict  is  on,  and  is  irresitible  — 
it  is  a  life-and-death  struggle.  Christianity  herself 
can  not  escape.  She  has  no  option  —  she  must 
fight.  Retreat  means  defeat.  This  momentous 
encounter  will  decide  whether  Christianity  is 
stronger  than  the  opposition.  Christianity  is  on 
trial  —  she  will  never  have  a  fair  chance.  Num¬ 
bers,  wealth,  intelligence,  social  standing,  mani¬ 
fold  resources  are  on  her  side.  She  is  trying  to 
win  the  most  unprejudiced,  open-hearted,  clean¬ 
skinned,  clear-brained  people  on  the  face  of  the 


ORGANIZATION. 


169 


earth.  Now  is  the  time,  and  here  is  the  place,  to 
vindicate  her  august,  transcendent  claims.  If  she 
can  not  triumph  here,  where  on  earth  can  she 
triumph  ?  ‘  If  she  has  run  with  the  footmen  and 

they  have  wearied  her,  then  how  can  she  contend 
with  horses  ?  ’  If  she  can  not  rule  her  own  house, 
and  have  her  own  children  in  subjection,  how  can 
she  take  care  of  the  rest  of  the  world  ?  The 
challenger  of  our  faith  meets  us  with  the  in¬ 
quiry  :  How  is  it  that  Christianity,  decrying  all 
other  remedies,  is  failing  to  apply  her  own  ? 
What  means  this  degeneracy  in  modern  times 
which  Christianity  seems  incapable  of  arresting  ? 
Why  is  it  that  vices  and  corruption  are  spreading 
with  terrific  rapidity  —  to  which  Christianity  is 
offering  only  a  feeble  barrier  ?  All  sorts  of  direful 
evils  are  on  the  increase  —  the  political  powers  of 
the  saloon  increasing  ;  discontent  among  wage¬ 
workers  increasing;  the  misuse  of  ill-gotten  wealth 
increasing  ;  the  breach  between  the  classes  and  the 
masses  increasing  ;  the  estrangement  between  capi¬ 
tal  and  labor  increasing;  the  suspicion  and  hatred 
of  the  churches  increasing  ;  pauperism  and  crime, 
the  social  vice  and  gambling,  skepticism  and  mate¬ 
rialism  increasing  ;  the  membership  in  the  evan¬ 
gelical  churches  increasing  ;  Christian  intelligence 
and  respectability  increasing.  Why  in  the  world  is 
not  the  political  salvation  of  this  nation  increas¬ 
ing  ?  What  is  the  matter  with  Christianity  that 


170  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

it  stands  impotent  in  the  face  of  these  corrupting 
and  destroying  forces  ?  ” 

The  answer  to  these  thunder-clap  questions  is, 
that  hitherto  Christianity  has  lacked  organization. 
It  has  wrought  in  a  sporadic  way,  through  indi¬ 
vidual  churches,  fighting 

“  A  battle,  whose  great  aim  and  scope 
They  little  care  to  know  ; 

Content,  like  men-at-arms,  to  cope 
Each  with  his  fronting  foe.” 

It  has  lacked  the  power  which  conies  from  the 
synthesis  of  church-life  and  activity.  The  gen¬ 
eralship  has  been  on  the  other  side.  The  evils 
which  assail  the  nation  are  organized  and  allied. 
So  are  all  the  great  factors  of  civilization  —  war, 
commerce,  business,  politics,  education,  every¬ 
thing,  except  religion.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  in¬ 
crease  of  numbers,  and  wealth,  and  culture  have 
not  insured  to  Christianity  a  vidtory  when  it  has 
never  federated  for  great  common  offensive  and 
defensive  purposes?  Discipline  is  mightier  than 
numbers.  Have  we  not  seen  in  our  generation 
little  Japan,  with  a  small,  but  disciplined  army, 
skilfully  led,  put  to  rout  the  innumerable,  but  un¬ 
organized  forces  of  colossal  China?  The  vital 
need  of  the  hour  is  church  union,  not  a  union  of 
outward  forms,  but  of  spirit  and  endeavor. 
Whether  we  shall  ever  have,  or  had  better  have, 
a  common  formula  to  express  our  faith,  or  one 


ORGANIZATION. 


I7I 

liturgy  to  embody  our  worship,  is  a  question. 
But  if  Christianity  is  to  dominate  this  continent, 
nay,  if  it  is  to  survive  at  all,  it  must  bind  its  ad¬ 
herents  together  in  triumphant  cooperation,  and 
swing  them  into  line  to  fulfil  the  aspiration  of  the 
Cord’s  Prayer,  ‘  ‘  Thy  kingdom  come.  ’  ’ 

In  searching  for  an  acceptable  basis  of  union, 
we  find  it  in  the  fa<5t,  of  common  acknowledge¬ 
ment,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Savior  not  alone  of 
the  individual,  but  of  society  through  the  individ¬ 
ual.  Every  saved  man,  and  every  group  of  saved 
men  in  every  church ,  is  to  be  a  savior  each 
for  all  and  all  for  each.  Christians  agree  in  be¬ 
lieving  that  all  efforts  at  social  amelioration  should 
be  made  tributary  to  the  bringing  all  men  under 
the  law  of  Christ,  and  into  vital  relations  with 
Him.  For,  while  it  is  important  that  men  be 
well-housed,  well-fed,  well-clothed,  well -employed, 
and  well-governed,  it  is  essential  that  they  be 
bound  through  brotherhood  to  the  heart  and  ser¬ 
vice  of  the  all- Father.  Therefore,  Christian  citi¬ 
zenship  is  not  the  end,  but  only  a  means  to  the 

end. 

As  to  the  objedfs  of  this  union,  the  first  is  the 
regeneration  of  America  because  this  means  the 
regeneration  of  the  earth.  It  begins  to  be  evi¬ 
dent  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  character  and  language 
are  destined  to  rule  the  world.  A  century 
ago  as  keen  an  observer  as  Franklin  thought 


172 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


the  French  people  and  tongue  would  dominate. 
Then  42,000,000  spoke  French,  and  only  18,000,- 
000  spoke  English.  To-day  120,000,000  speak 
English,  and  150,000,000  understand  it,  and  the 
foremost  of  philologists,  Prof.  Max  Muller,  con¬ 
tends  that  within  two  centuries  English  will  be¬ 
come  the  universal  language. 

Already,  according  to  Dr.  Clark,  “the  English 
language,  saturated  with  Christian  ideas,  is  the 
great  agent  of  Christian  civilization  throughout 
the  world,  and  is  molding  the  character  of  half 
the  human  race.  ’  ’  By  common  consent,  America 
is  the  coming  custodian  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
cb  uradter  and  language.  Eisten  to  a  few  authori¬ 
tative  voices  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Alex¬ 
ander  Hamilton  has  said  :  “It  is  ours  to  be  either 
the  grave  in  which  the  hopes  of  the  world  shall 
be  entombed,  or  the  pillar  of  cloud  that  shall  pilot 
the  race  onward  to  millenial  glory.”  Matthew 
Arnold  has  said  :  “  America  holds  the  future.” 
Herbert  Spencer  has  said  :  “  The  Americans  are 
producing  a  more  powerful  type  of  man  than  has 
hitherto  existed,”  and  “may  reasonably  look 
forward  to  a  time  when  they  will  have  produced 
a  civilization  grander  than  any  the  world  has  yet 
known.”  John  Fisk  has  said:  “The  world’s 
center  of  gravity  has  shifted  from  the  Mediterra¬ 
nean  and  the  Rhine  to  the  Atlantic  and  the  Mis¬ 
sissippi,  from  the  men  who  spoke  Latin  to  the  men 


ORGANIZATION. 


173 


who  speak  English. ’  ’  Emerson  has  said  :  “Amer¬ 
ica  is  another  name  for  opportunity.  Our  whole 
history  appears  like  a  last  effort  of  Divine  provi¬ 
dence  in  behalf  of  the  human  race.  ’  ’  Ought  we 
not,  therefore,  to  push  Christianizing  agencies 
with  overwhelming  urgency  ? 

The  second  objedt  of  Christian  union  is  the 
bringing  conscience  to  bear  on  the  civic  life  of  the 
nation.  “  A  cpiickened  and  enlightened  con¬ 
science,”  observes  Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  “is  the 
great  need  of  the  times  in  the  relation  of  em¬ 
ployer  and  employe  in  all  private  business,  in  all 
public  trusts,  in  politics,  and  in  legislation ,  muni¬ 
cipal,  State,  and  national.  I11  whatever  sphere 
men  ought,  there  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of  the 
Church  to  urge  the  dictates  of  the  Christian  con¬ 
science.  But  in  the  unorganized  condition  of 
the  churches  there  is  no  medium  through  which 
the  Christian  conscience  of  the  city,  the  State, 
the  nation  can  utter  itself.  For  lack  of  this  sav¬ 
ing  salt,  municipal  government  has  rotted,  and 
legislatures  have  become  corrupt.  Every  year 
needed  reform  legislation  fails  and  laws  are  enacted 
which  do  violence  to  the  Christian  conscience  of 
the  State,  because  there  is  no  medium  through 
which  that  conscience  can  be  brought  to  bear. 
By  such  an  organization,  as  is  proposed,  a  legisla¬ 
ture  could  be  flooded  with  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  names  in  petition  or  protest  in  a  single  week. 


i74 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


On  the  basis  of  this  general  recognition  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  Savior  of  the  social  order,  and  with 
the  two-fold  objedt  of  regenerating  America,  and 
of  bringing  the  Christian  conscience  to  bear  on 
civic  life  as  the  means  of  regeneration,  what  are 
the  proper  methods  of  organization  ? 

Happily,  the  political  framework  of  the  country 
supplies  us  with  a  suggestive  model.  The  national 
Union  is  composed  of  forty -five  States.  Each  of 
these  is  distindl  and  independent  in  local  affairs, 
while  in  matters  of  common  concern  each  is  rein¬ 
forced  by  all  the  rest.  Thus  their  individual  auton¬ 
omy  is  jealously  guarded,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
overwhelming  power  of  national  unity  is  secured. 
Just  so  the  churches  exist  in  various  denomina¬ 
tional  relations.  The  individual  churches  are  like 
the  towns  or  counties  of  the  State.  The  denomi¬ 
nations  are  like  the  States  themselves.  Both 
churches  and  denominations  are  proud  of  their 
independence,  and  set  upon  the  maintenance  of 
self-government.  Without  parting  with  these  pre¬ 
rogatives  of  sovereignty,  they  might  come  into 
some  form  of  federal  union,  which  should  enable 
them  quickly  to  converge  their  separate  influence 
into  a  unit  of  power  for  defense  or  attack.  It  is 
not  the  province  of  this  chapter  to  sketch  in  the 
details  of  such  a  compact.  These  can  be  easily 
manipulated  and  all  discordant  interests  adjusted, 
when  once  the  desire  for  inter-denominational 


ORGANIZATION. 


175 


federation  takes  possession  of  the  Christian 
heart. 

Meantime,  we  call  attention  to  the  fadt  that 
some  good  beginnings  have  been  already  made. 

‘  ‘  The  National  Christian  Citizenship  League  ’  ’ 
was  incorporated  some  time  since,  and  has  auxili¬ 
aries  in  a  number  of  States.  It  is  locally  an 
unsedtarian,  nou-partizan  league  of  individuals  ; 
nationally,  a  league  of  leagues.  Since  neither 
the  churches  nor  the  young  people’s  societies  can, 
as  such,  take  political  adlion,  the  members  are 
under  obligation  to  enter  some  outside  related 
body  through  which  they  can  make  their  Christian 
influence  and  votes  tell  for  civic  righteousness. 
“  Christian  citizenship,”  remarks  Mr.  Edwin  D. 
Wheelock,  the  founder  and  first  president  of  the 
League,  “  maintains  the  supreme  right  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  rule  municipal,  State,  and  national  life, 
as  well  as  private  life.  These  should  be  governed 
on  the  principles  laid  down  by  him.  Upon  the 
application  of  these  principles  depends  the  final 
solution  of  every  present-day  problem.  It  believes 
our  government  to  be  appointed  of  God,  and 
therefore  sacred  —  too  sacred  to  be  left  in  the 
hands  of  corrupt  men,  whatever  their  party  name. 
It  believes  that  the  dangers  which  threaten  our 
country  arise  less  from  the  strength  and  adtivity 
of  bad  men,  than  from  the  apathy  and  cowardice 
of  good  men.  It  believes  that  Christian  citizens 


176 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


are  called  to  put  their  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ  into 
their  politics,  to  serve  Him  at  the  primaries,  and 
to  vote  as  He  would  have  them  vote.  It  believes  the 
Bible  to  teach  obedience  to  law,  and  that  the  office 
of  a  law-maker  or  administrator  is  so  sacred  that 
to  put  a  bad  man  into  it  is  sacrilege.  The  presence 
of  a  corrupt  governor,  legislator,  mayor,  alder¬ 
man,  or  judge  ought  to  fill  every  Christian  citizen 
with  such  an  intensity  of  grief  that  he  will  ‘  cry 
aloud  and  spare  not  ’  until  the  evil  be  corrected.” 

The  platform  of  the  Teague  is  as  follows  : 

1 .  ‘  ‘  To  prevent  by  personal  effort  the  nomina¬ 
tion  and  election  of  corrupt  candidates,  and  the 
enactment  of  corrupt  laws  in  city,  State  and 
nation. 

2 .  “To  secure  fidelity  011  the  part  of  officers 
entrusted  with  the  execution  of  the  laws. 

3.  “To  exterminate  the  saloon  as  the  greatest 
enemy  of  Christ  and  humanity. 

4.  “  To  preserve  the  Sabbath. 

5.  “To  purify  and  elevate  the  elective  fran¬ 
chise. 

6.  “To  promote  the  study  of  social  wrongs 
and  the  application  of  the  remedies. 

7.  “In  general,  to  seek  the  reign  of  whatsoever 
things  are  true,  honest,  just,  pure,  lovely,  and  of 
good  report.  ’  ’ 

A  suggestive  constitution  for  local  leagues  may 
be  found  in  the  Appendix. 


ORGANIZATION. 


177 


“The  Kvangelieal  Alliance,”  an  older  and 
stronger  organization,  has  recently  symmetrized 
itself,  by  adding  to  its  original  spiritual  purpose, 
which  was  the  cultivation  of  Christian  fellowship 
and  the  forwarding  of  evangelization,  a  corelative 
social  department,  covering  the  whole  field  of 
civics.  It  is  thus  the  most  complete  agency  in 
existence  for  all  kinds  of  Christian  work,  and  a 
possible  nucleus  of  continental  Christian  union. 
Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  its  secretary,  is  specially  con¬ 
cerned  at  present  in  pushing  the  Christian  citizen¬ 
ship  phase  of  the  Alliance.  A  copy  of  its  consti¬ 
tution  may  also  be  seen  in  the  Appendix.16 

We  turn  now  from  these  methods  of  organiza¬ 
tion  to  consider  some  related  matters.  The  expe¬ 
rience  of  a  hundred  years  has  revealed  certain 
characteristic  defeCts  in  our  political  system.  We 
boast  of  ‘  ‘  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people.  ’  ’  In  reality  we  have  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  majority,  by  the  majority^  and  for  the 
majority.  And  no  matter  how  small  the  majority 
may  be,  it  is  dominant.  Nay,  what  is  yet  more 
unfair,  we  are  not  unfrequently  governed  by  a 
minority.  Suppo.se,  for  example,  a  State  to  be 
divided  between  three  or  four  parties,  and  suppose 
one  of  them  to  have  a  preponderance  of  votes  over 
each  of  the  others,  although  in  a  minority  as 
against  the  combined  ballots  of  the  opposition. 
As  things  now  stand,  the  first  party  would  control 


i?8 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


legislation.  This  is  government  not  by  majority 
but  by  plurality.  Not  only  so,  but  the  actual 
majority,  because  of  its  divisions,  is  misrepre¬ 
sented  ;  public  policies,  hateful  to  it,  are  adopted 
and  administered.  Small  parties  have  no  repre¬ 
sentation  in  legislative  bodies,  and  therefore  no 
voice  in  the  discussion  of  pending  measures. 
Size,  if  it  be  small,  operates  as  perpetual  disfran¬ 
chisement. 

To  remedy  these  defeats,  Proportio7ial  Represe7i- 
tation  has  been  advocated  by  eminent  writers  on 
government  on  both  sides  of  the  water  —  by  John 
Stuart  Mill,  in  Europe  ;  and  by  Prof.  John  R. 
Commons,  in  America.  To  illustrate  the  working 
of  this  scheme,  Mr.  W.  D.  McCracken  supposes 
that  ‘  ‘  an  imaginary  State  is  to  elecft  ten  represent¬ 
atives  by  means  of  i  ,000  votes.  Then  every  party 
which  can  muster  one- tenth  of  the  total,  or  100 
votes,  ought  to  be  entitled  to  one  representative. 
If  this  imaginary  State  contains  400  Republicans, 
300  Democrats,  200  Populists,  and  100  Prohibi¬ 
tionists,  its  legislature  should  be  composed  of  4 
Republicans,  3  Democrats,  2  Populists,  and  1 
Prohibitionist.  Under  present  conditions,  the 
Populists  and  Prohibitionists  could  not  elect  their 
candidates  at  all,  while  the  slight  plurality  of 
Republicans  would  probably  allow  them  to  sweep 
the  State.” 

Proportional  representation  has  been  introduced 


ORGANIZATION. 


179 


into  certain  Swiss  cantons,  and  here  it  is  in  use  in 
Illinois,  in  the  election  of  members  to  the  lower 
house  of  the  State  legislature  ;  in  Boston,  in  the 
eledtion  of  aldermen  to  the  city  council ;  and  it 
was  employed  in  New  York,  in  1867,  in  the  elec¬ 
tion  of  delegates  to  a  State  constitutional  conven¬ 
tion. 

The  practical  difficulty  in  this  country  has  been 
to  find  an  electoral  substitute  for  the  existing 
division  into  electoral  districts,  based  upon  terri¬ 
torial  apportionment  —  an  arrangement  which  has 
led  to,  and  encouraged,  continental  “  gerryman¬ 
dering.  ’  ’  Several  feasible  methods  have  been  elab¬ 
orated —  Hare’s  plan,  the  limited  vote,  the  cumu¬ 
lative  vote,  etc.  One  or  another  of  these  is  in 
adtual  use :  the  limited  vote,  in  Boston  ;  the 
cumulative  vote,  in  Illinois.  We  lack  space  to 
describe  these  methods  —  those  interested  are  re¬ 
ferred  to  books  on  the  general  subjedt. 

Another  undemocratic  feature  of  our  govern¬ 
ment  is  the  alienation  from  the  people  of  a  diredt 
voice  in  legislation,  and  of  the  power  authorita¬ 
tively  to  propose  it.  We  have,  indeed,  the  right 
of  petition.  But  the  powers  that  be  are  under  no 
obligation  to  do  anything  with  a  petition  beyond 
receiving  it,  and,  pradtically,  this  is  all  that  is 
ever  done.  There  is  hardly  an  instance  on  record 
of  legislation  introduced  by  petition. 

With  a  view  to  democratic  government,  two 


i8o 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


methods  of  direct  popular  legislation  have  been 
recently  suggested,  viz.,  the  Initiative  and  the 
Refere7idum.  The  first  may  be  defined  as  an  insti¬ 
tution  by  which  a  certain  percentage  of  voters 
may  initiate  laws  ;  and  the  second,  as  an  institu¬ 
tion  by  which  the  whole  body  of  voters  may  vote 
‘  ‘  yes  ”  or  “no”  upon  the  proposition  introduced 
by  the  initiative.  In  the  last  analysis,  the  process 
is  simply  this.  So  many  voters  —  in  Switzerland, 
where  these  institutions  are  in  vogue,  50,000  — 
are  authorized  to  propose  such  and  such  legisla¬ 
tion,  through  the  medium  of  the  government ; 
which  is  then  obliged  to  submit  the  matter  thus 
initiated  to  a  diredt  popular  vote. 

The  special  advantage  claimed  for  these  meas¬ 
ures  is  that  they  make  it  possible  for  any  consid¬ 
erable  number  of  voters  to  secure  the  verdidt  of 
the  people  upon  any  measure  which  the  legislature 
might  not  be  willing  to  adt  upon,  or  might  adt 
upon  adversely  to  the  wishes  of  its  proposers.  It 
is  difficult,  for  instance,  to  get  from  any  legislature 
a  favorable  response  to  a  petition  for  a  prohib¬ 
itory  law.  The  initiative  and  the  referendum 
would  enable  a  given  number  of  the  friends  of 
temperance  to  demand  an  expression  from  the 
people  at  large,  independently  of  the  legislature. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  prohibitory  States,  like 
Maine  or  North  Dakota,  the  saloons  could  pursue 
the  same  course  for  the  purpose  of  overturning 


ORGANIZATION.  l8l 

temperance  legislation.  The  larger  number  of 
the  Swiss  cantons  have  adopted  the  initiative  and 
the  referendum.  Their  experiment  is  being 
watched  with  eager  interest.  Meantime  it  must 
be  acknowledged  that  there  is  not  a  consensus  of 
opinion  among  political  economists  regarding  the 

real  value  of  these  measures.  Perhaps  it  is  too 
early  to  decide. 

An  ingenious  theory,  which  is  held  by  its 
friends  to  be  a  panacea,  is  the  Single  Tax ,  elabor¬ 
ated  by  Mr.  Henry  George.  By  this  expedient, 
it  is  proposed,  at  one  stroke,  to  obviate  all  existing 
evils  by  destroying  the  vicious  principle  which,  it 
is  claimed,  begets  them — land  monopoly;  and 
to  abate  the  nuisance  of  multiform  taxes,  by  em¬ 
powering  each  community  to  coiled  rent  upon  the 
lands  within  its  limits,  in  lieu  therefor,  thus 
securing  a  fund  warranted  to  be  more  than  suf¬ 
ficient  to  pay  all  communal  expenses. 

We  quote  a  few  characteristic  sentences  on  this 
subject  from  an  eminent  exponent  of  the  single 
tax  : 

‘  ‘  The  most  glaring  sign  of  our  national  corrup¬ 
tion  is  the  rapid  growth  of  economic  inequality. 

‘  ‘  Magnates  manipulate  all  the  unparalleled 
natural  opportunities  of  the  country,  independent 
workingmen  are  losing  their  individuality  in  the 
great  army  of  the  employed.  Of  course,  this 
wretched  and  unnatural  state  of  things  is  not  con- 


182 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


fined  to  America  ;  it  is  charadteristic  of  this  latter 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  is  found  to  a 
greater  or  lesser  degree  all  the  world  over.  But 
as  Americans  are  of  all  people  the  most  sensitive 
to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  its  tendencies  are  neces¬ 
sarily  exaggerated  with  us.  Our  millionaires  at 
one  end  of  the  scale,  and  our  tramps  at  the  other, 
are  more  pronounced  specimens  of  their  kind  than 
can  be  found  in  Europe.  The  former  seem  more 
extravagantly  luxurious,  the  latter  more  abjedtly 
miserable,  because  our  State  is  founded  upon  the 
assumption  of  equality. 

“Economic  inequality  readts  upon  legislation. 
The  magnates  control  the  markets,  and,  therefore, 
make  the  laws.  Special  interests  require  special 
bills.  Bribery  becomes  the  ordinary,  every-day 
method  of  law-making.  Every  corrupting  cause 
is  followed  by  its  natural  effedt  in  a  vicious  and 
infallible  sequence. 

‘  ‘  But  there  is  one  principal  inj  ustice  which  lies 
at  the  base  of  this  decay  of  democracy, — the 
monopoly  of  land  with  everything  that  that  term 
implies.  The  great  unearned  fortunes  of  this 
country  are  based  on  the  increment  of  land  values. 
Real  estate  magnates,  oil,  mining,  lumber,  and 
railroad  magnates  are  primarily  monopolizers  of 
land.  They  deal  in  .some  form  of  the  crust  of  the 
earth.  It  is  upon  this  part  of  their  business  in¬ 
terests  that  they  make  the  most  successful  specu- 


ORGANIZATION. 


183 


lations  and  accumulate  fortunes.  Improvements, 
such  as  houses,  mining,  and  railroad  plants  de¬ 
teriorate  with  use  ;  land  alone  increases  in  value, 
because  its  supply  is  a  fixed  quantity . 

‘  ‘  Mere  land  owners  do  not  perform  any  proper 
economic  function.  They  are  simply  preemptors 
of  rights,  collectors  of  toll  or  rent.  It  is  only  in 
so  far  as  they  improve  their  land  that  they  become 
useful  members  of  society.  Private  property  in 
improvements  is,  therefore,  just  and  logical,  but 
private  property  in  mere  land  bears  in  its  train  a 
long  series  of  abuses  and  tyrannies. 

‘  ‘  Every  succeeding  generation  requires  the  Use 
of  the  crust  of  the  earth  for  all  its  material  needs, 
as  it  also  requires  air  and  water.  Food,  clothing, 
tools,  etc.,  must  all  be  wrought  from  land  by 
labor.  But  if  some  inhabitants  arrogate  to  them¬ 
selves  exclusive  rights  to  the  earth’s  surface,  it  is 
evident  that  the  rest  must  make  terms  with  them 
before  they  can  satisfy  their  simplest  wants.  Pri¬ 
vate  property  in  land,  therefore,  tends  inevitably 
to  divide  men  into  masters  and  slaves,  no  matter 
how  carefully  political  equality  may  be  guarded. 
The  single  tax  seeks  to  vest  the  ownership  of 
the  land  in  the  people,  and  to  award  merely  the 
use  of  it  to  individuals — to  make  it  unprofitable 
to  hold  without  improvement,  and  subjeCt  to  a  tax 
for  revenue  graduated  by  the  degree  of  such  im¬ 
provement. 


184 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


Yet  another  fin  de  Siecle  method  of  reform  is 
Arbitration  —  national,  for  domestic  controversies; 
inter-national,  for  differences  arising  between 
foreign  states.  This,  if  generally  adopted,  would 
supersede  war,  unburden  nations  by  disarmament, 
and  put  an  end  to  strikes  011  one  hand,  and  lock¬ 
outs  on  the  other,  by  compelling  both  capital  and 
labor  to  appeal  to  a  Board  of  Arbitration  for  a 
friendly  settlement  of  disagreements. 

A  question  increasingly  mooted,  nowadays,  is 
the  public  ownership  of  public  franchises  —  light, 
water,  railroads,  wharfs,  etc.  In  a  previous 
chapter  we  have  spoken  of  the  prominence  of 
cities  in  our  day.  The  trend  of  civilization  is 
urban.  Hence,  whatever  increases  the  comfort, 
promotes  the  health,  and  widens  the  horizon  of 
life  in  cities,  is  of  foremost  importance.  Two- 
thirds  of  the  Scotch  people,  and  three-fourths  of 
the  English,  are  now  townsfolk.  Forty  per  cent, 
of  the  French,  forty  percent,  of  the  Germans,  and 
nearly  as  large  a  proportion  of  the  Hollanders, 
Belgians,  and  Italians  are  grouped  in  cities  ;  while 
the  urban  tendency  is  as  marked  in  the  valley  of 
the  Danube  as  it  is  in  the  valley  of  the  Missis¬ 
sippi.  The  dawn  of  the  industrial  era  lias  caused 
this  state  of  things,  and  made  the  science  of  the 
modern  town  the  most  vital  of  any  in  the  ency¬ 
clopedia. 

Singularly  enough,  the  most  radical  of  people 


ORGANIZATION. 


185 


must  go  to  the  most  conservative,  the  United 
States  must  go  to  Great  Britain  for  instruction  on 
the  subjeCt  of  municipal  collectivism.  Manchester 
and  Birmingham  in  England,  and  Glasgow,  in 
Scotland,  are  easily  the  model  municipalities  of 
the  world .  They  have  housed  their  populations  in 
the  best  tenements,  municipalized  the  gas  supply, 
and  reduced  the  cost  to  50  or  60  cents  per  1,000 
cubic  feet ;  provided  municipal  lodgings  for  men 
and  women  ;  purchased  the  water-works  and 
doubled  the  per  capita  supply  ;  absorbed  the  street 
railways  —  called  tramways  there  —  reduced  the 
hours  of  the  employes,  and  of  the  cost  of  fares  ; 
transformed  the  problem  of  sewage  from  a  menace 
to  the  public  health  into  a  source  of  revenue,  by 
a  system  of  filtration  which  makes  garbage  a  fer¬ 
tilizer  ;  and  increased  the  happiness  while  decreas¬ 
ing  the  burdens  of  their  denizens.  Glasgow  has 
deepened  the  Clyde  from  a  fordable  stream  into 
a  river  capable  of  floating  vessels  of  heaviest 
draught  ;  lined  its  banks  with  the  greatest  ship¬ 
yards  in  the  world,  and  municipalized  the  whole 
harbor  —  wharfs,  ferries,  and  all,  thus  securing  a 
princely  revenue. 

Before  we  could  go  safely  into  such  business  here, 
we  would  need  to  reform  our  civil  service.  The 
putting  of  millions  of  positions  into  politics,  and 
filling  them  at  the  will  of  party  bosses  as  a  reward  for 
party  service,  would  plunge  this  nation  into  chaos. 


i86 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


We  catalogue  these  various  projects  of  reform 
without  indorsing  them.  Since  they  are  urged 
by  reputable  men,  they  are  entitled  to  a  respectful 
hearing.  Christian  citizens  need  large  heads,  and 
should  carry  generous  hearts  hospitable  towards 
anything,  everything  which  promises  to  advance 
the  public  welfare.  St.  Paul’s  didtum  applies-  to 
this  whole  subjebt  of  methods  of  reform  :  ‘  ‘  Prove 
all  things,  hold  fast  that  which  is  good.” 


XI. 


“hitch  your  wagon  to  a  star.” 

Thk  curse  of  our  age  is  materialism.  We  kindle 
only  within  the  sphere  of  material  interests  and 
pursuits.  On  higher  subjects  we  are  cold  as  ice¬ 
fields  on  Alpine  breasts.  There  is  an  apotheosis 
of  dirt  among  us.  Men  only  half  believe  in  what 
they  can  not  see  and  touch.  They  group  around 
them  the  trophies  of  their  skill — steam-engines, 
railroads,  telegraphs,  sewing-machines,  and  wor¬ 
ship  these  as  the  ultimate  good. 

Since  we  are  infedted  with  this  grovelling  tend¬ 
ency,  we  need  to  be  reminded  that  the  controllers 
of  the  present  and  the  molders  of  the  future  are 
not  the  babblers  who  plead  for  an  unreal  realism, 
but  are  the  exponents  of  moral  earnestness  —  ideal¬ 
ists,  heated  to  enthusiasm  by  glowing  ideals. 
History  is  made  and  vocalized  by  heroes,  like  our 
patriot  fathers,  who  pledged  their  “lives,  their 
fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor  ’  ’  on  behalf  of 
truth  and  progress  ;  or  the  Pilgrims,  who  made 
New  England,  when,  clad  in  her  sparkling  snow, 
and  crowned  with  her  evergreen  pines,  the  glory 
of  her  brow  was  justice,  the  splendor  of  her  eye 

was  liberty ,  the  strength  of  her  hands  was  industry , 

187 


1 88 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


and  the  whiteness  of  her  bosom  was  faith  ;  by  men, 
like  Paul,  who  said  “  I  can  do  all  things  through 
Christ,  which  strengtheneth  me  5  *  ;  or  Luther,  who 
set  his  feet  on  the  rock  of  principle,  and  said  : 
“  Here  I  must  stand  —  God  help  me  !  ”  or  Knox, 
who  prayed  “Oh  God!  give  me  Scotland,  or  I 
die  !  ”  and  got  it  ;  or  Wesley,  who  said  “  I  desire 
a  league,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  every  sol¬ 
dier  of  Jesus  Christ”  ;  or  Wilberforce,  who,  as 
Brougham  said,  “went  to  heaven  with  800,000 
broken  fetters  in  his  hands  ”  ;  or  the  Karl  of 
Shaftesbury,  who  illustrated  in  his  own  person 
his  own  assertion  that  ‘  ‘  the  best  greatness  is  good¬ 
ness  ”  ;  or  Phillips,  who  said  “  I  found  my  coun¬ 
try  half  slave  and  half  free  —  I  left  it  without  a 
fetter.” 

In  the  “  good  fight  ”  to  which  we,  as  Christian 
citizens,  are  called,  let  us  cheer  our  spirits  and 
nerve  our  souls  with  these  high  ideals  and  brave 
examples.  Realizing  the  fadt  that  America  is  to 
be  won  for  Christ,  we  must  be  content  with 
nothing  else  and  nothing  less.  When  once  Amer¬ 
ica  is  His,  the  world  will  be  His. 

Hebrew  prophet  and  Christian  seer  agree  in 
fortelling  the  reign  of  Christ  among  men.  The 
one  affirms  that  ‘  ‘  whether  they  be  thrones  or 
dominions  or  principalities  or  powers  ;  all  things 
were  created  by  Him,  and  for  Him  ”  ;  while  the 
other  asserts  that  ‘  ‘  the  earth  is  the  Lord’s,  and  the 


“hitch  your  wagon  to  a  star. 


189 


)  ) 


fulness  thereof.”  Our  Lord  Himself  opens  His 
model  prayer  with  the  supplication,  ‘  ‘  Thy  will  be 
done  011  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.” 

The  wonderful  and  inspiring  truth  is  that  Christ 
is  to  have  a  second  incarnation.  We  are  familiar 
with  His  first  one.  The  New  Testament  is  the 
radiant  record  of  it.  The  second  is  yet  to  come, 
not  in  a  human  body,  as  before,  but  in  the  body 
of  human  society.  The  first  incarnation  was  a 
revelation  ;  the  second  will  be  a  transformation. 
In  the  past,  He  was  one  man  ;  in  the  future  He  is 
to  be  all  men.  In  Galilee  He  taught  on  the  out¬ 
side  of  affairs  ;  in  the  millenium  He  is  to  fill  all 
in  all  —  all  governments,  all  laws,  all  policies,  all 
administrations,  all  industries,  all  economies,  and 
to  dominate  civilization. 

This  unfolding  of  Christ  in  all  and  over  all, 
blessed  forever,  is  to  be  a  development.  It  will 
follow,  it  is  following,  the  order  of  the  fust  in¬ 
carnation.  We  are  told  that  the  infant  Jesus 
increased  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favor  with 
God  and  man.”  The  word  “stature”  may  be 
taken  as  referring  to  the  physical  side  of  His 
growth.  Since  He  was  the  model  man,  He  must 
have  had  a  perfecft  body.  Just  so,  in  the  second 
incarnation,  there  is  to  be  an  ideal  development  of 
physical  conditions.  The  race  is  as  yet  in  child¬ 
hood,  nay,  worse,  in  ignorance  and  sin  ;  and  in 
the  forlorn  physical  conditions  which  they  pro- 


190  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

duce.  The  stronghold  of  iniquity  to-day  is  the 
body  —  its  very  Gibraltar,  garrisoned  by  the  vices. 
Until  the  body  is  redeemed  little  can  be  done  for 
the  soul.  The  greater  part  of  the  human  race  is 
at  this  moment  near  starvation  —  never  has 
enough  to  eat.  Physiologists  teach  that  unless 
the  body  is  properl y  fed,  clothed,  and  housed,  it 
can  do  no  justice  to  the  brain.  The  human  ver¬ 
min  that  swarm  in  the  slums  and  scramble  in  the 

tenements,  live  only  a  bestial  life,  and  lack  the 
elasticity  to  make  mental  and  moral  progress. 
And  they  are  where  they  are  and  what  they  are 
largely  as  the  result  of  inherited  proclivities  to 
evil ;  their  ancestors  were  like  them.  In  the  good 
time  coming,  the  body  shall  be  nourished.  Chil¬ 
dren  will  be  begotten  in  righteousness  and  trained 
in  righteousness.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the 
devil  can  breed  sinners  at  the  childhood  end  faster 
than  the  Almighty  can  make  saints  at  the  adult 
end  of  life.  Hence,  by-and-by,  marriage  will  be 
put  under  conscience  rather  than  passion.  Here¬ 
dity  will  be  understood.  As  sinners  are  now 
bred,  so  saints  will  be  bred.  The  start  will  be 
right,  and  therefore  the  growth  will  be  symme¬ 
trical.  Malformations  will  no  longer  offend  the 
eye  and  perplex  the  mind  of  observers.  The  rule 
will  be  health. 

And  Jesus  grew  in  “wisdom”  as  well  as  in 
“  stature.”  The  word  “  wisdom  ”  is  to  be  inter- 


“hitch  your  wagon  to  a  star. 


preted  in  its  comprehensive  sense  as  significant  of 
mental  and  moral  growth.  And  here,  too,  we 
may  expedt  the  second  incarnation  to  resemble 
the  first.  With  a  sound  body,  freed  from  the 
tyranny  of  inherited  or  acquired  weaknesses  and 
vices,  the  mind  and  conscience  of  the  race  will 
have  a  fair  chance  to  develop.  Inventions  will 
multiply  ;  the  physical  globe  will  be  brought 
under  human  domination  more  and  more  ;  and 
the  law  of  kindness,  of  mutual  helpfulness,  will 
lend  its  aid  in  producing  an  unimaginable  increase 
of  leisure,  comfort,  knowledge,  and  power.  Wealth 
will  be  distributed.  Corporations  will  be  coopera¬ 
tive.  Society  will  domesticate  the  liberty  and 
equality  of  the  ideal  home  under  the  dome  of  its 
state-house.  The  law  of  the  social  order  will  be 
the  angelic  overture  at  the  Nativity —  “  Glory  to 
God  in  the  highest  ;  on  earth,  peace,  good  will 
toward  men .  ’ '  The  earth  will  no  longer  chant  a 
requiem,  but  will  sing  hallelujahs  as  it  swings 
around  its  joyous  orbit. 

These  are  the  ideals  which  should  inspire  Chris¬ 
tian  citizens.  True,  they  are  poetry  to-day. 
Faithfulness  on  our  part  may  turn  them  into  prose 
to-morrow.  When  Shakespeare  made  Puck  say , 

“  I’ll  put  a  girdle  round  about  the  earth 
In  forty  minutes,” — 

it  seemed  the  wildest  poetry  ;  yet  now  the  eledtric 


192 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


cable  hoops  the  globe,  and  men  whisper  messages 
back  and  forth  in  forty  seconds.  “  According  to 
your  faith,”  said  our  Master,  “  be  it  unto  you.” 

What  a  privilege  !  what  an  honor  !  to  be  made 
co-workers  together  and  with  God  in  the  accom¬ 
plishment  of  these  gracious  and  .splendid  purposes. 
Christian  citizens  are  now  surrounded  by  multi¬ 
form  discouragements.  Evil  is  rampant.  Satan  is 
as  yet  the  god  of  this  world.  No  matter.  When 
the  battle  appears  to  go  against  us,  we  must  trust 
the  more  utterly  and  fight  the  more  desperately. 
Get  us  ask  great  things  of  God,  and  expedt  great 
things  from  God.  Trust  and  adt,  should  be  our 
watchwords.  “In  the  theater  of  man’s  life,” 
says  Lord  Bacon,  “God  and  His  angels  only 
should  be  lookers-on.”  We  are  not  here  on 
earth  to  have  an  easy  time.  “  There  remaineth, 
therefore,  a  rest  to  the  people  of  God  ;  ’  ’  not  now, 
not  here,  this  is  the  battlefield  ;  but  in  halcyon 
days  to  come.  When  the  splendid  promises  of 
Holy  Writ  are  fulfilled,  and,  throned  in  honor 
and  cushioned  in  ease,  we  look  back  from  the 
glory-land  to  our  part  amid  earthly  tribulations, 
in  the  majestic  consummation,  each  of  us  may 
cry  :  “I  was  troubled  on  every  side,  yet  not  dis¬ 
tressed  ;  perplexed,  but  not  in  despair  ;  perse¬ 
cuted,  but  not  forsaken  ;  cast  down,  but  not  de¬ 
stroyed  ;  because  I  was  not  disobedient  unto  the 
heavenly  vision.” 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


’Citizen,  from  the  Latin  Civis ,  French  Citoyen,  from 
cztS,  originally  denoted  one  who  enjoyed  the  freedom  and 
privileges  of  a  city.  In  modern  law  the  term  is  broadened 
to  include  all  persons  who  owe  an  indefeasible  allegi¬ 
ance  to  a  State,  and  are  entitled  to  certain  rights  and 
privileges  appertaining  to  freemen. 

2  In  view  of  the  agitation  in  favor  of  woman’s  suffrage 
in  the  United  States  it  may  be  of  interest  to  know  that  in 
nearly  all  the  countries  on  the  globe  women  have  had 
some  form  of  suffrage  for  years.  We  are  somewhat 
slow  in  extending  to  them  this  privilege. 

In  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales  women  vote  for  all 
elective  officers,  except  members  of  Parliament. 

In  France  the  women  teachers  elect  women  members 
on  all  boards  of  education. 

In  Sweden  women  vote  for  all  elective  officers,  except 
representatives. 

In  Norway  they  have  school  suffrage. 

In  Ireland  they  vote  for  the  harbor  boards,  poor-law 
guardians,  and  in  Belfast  for  municipal  officers. 

In  Russia  women  householders  vote  for  all  elective 
officers. 

In  Finland  they  vote  for  all  elective  officers. 

In  Austria-Hungary  they  vote,  by  proxy,  for  all  elec¬ 
tive  officers. 

In  Italy  widows  vote  for  members  of  Parliament. 

In  Hindustan  women  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage. 

195 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


19b 

Women  have  municipal  suffrage  in  Cape  Colony,  which 
rules  one  million  square  miles. 

Municipal  woman  suffrage  rules  in  New  Zealand. 

Iceland,  in  the  North  Atlantic,  the  Isle  of  Man,  between 
England  and  Ireland,  Pitcairn  Island,  in  the  South  Pacific, 
have  full  woman  suffrage. 

In  the  Dominion  of  Canada  women  have  municipal 
suffrage  in  every  province,  and  also  in  the  northwest 

territories. 

In  the  United  States  twenty-eight  States  and  Terri¬ 
tories  have  given  women  some  form  of  suffrage.  In 
Wyoming,  Colorado,  and  Utah,  they  have  full  suffrage. 

3  There  are  proportionately  more  church  members  in 
the  cities  than  in  the  country.  In  the  entire  United 
States  one  person  in  every  3.04  is  returned  as  a  com¬ 
municant,  while  in  the  cities  one  out  of  every  2.64  is. 
This  is  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  it  is  much  easiei  to 
organize  and  maintain  churches  where  the  population  is 
compact  than  where  it  is  scattered,  and  partly  to  the  fact 
that  the  Catholic  Church  has  its  great  strongholds  in  the 
larger  cities.  About  one-half  of  the  Catholics  ar  e  in  the 
124  cities  of  a  population  of  25,000  and  upwards.  Over  a 
million  are  in  the  four  cities  of  New  "V  01k,  Chicago,  Phila¬ 
delphia,  and  Brooklyn,  The  figures  foi  those  cities  are  as 

follows : 


Total 

Communi¬ 

cants. 

Catholic. 

All  Others. 

556,954 

386,200 

170,744 

388,145 

262,047 

126,098 

335,189 

163,658 

i7i,53i 

309,610 

201,063 

108,547 

APPENDIX. 


197 


The  strength  of  the  Protestant  denominations  is  in  the 
country,  and  that  of  the  Catholics  in  the  cities.  Thus  in 
Illinois,  outside  of  Chicago,  there  are  but  213427  Catho¬ 
lic  communicants,  while  the  other  denominations  foot  up 
601,014.  But  if  the  number  of  Chicagoans  who  go  to 
Protestant  churches  with  more  or  less  regularity,  and 
who  contribute  to  some  extent  to  their  support,  were 
added  to  the  Protestant  church  membership,  the  latter 
would  not  fall  so  very  much  below  that  of  the  Catholics. 
The  Chicago  statistics  are  as  follows : 


Catholic . 262,047 

Lutheran . 34,999 

Methodist .  *7,95° 

Baptist .  12,634 

Episcopal .  9)74x 


Presbyterian .  n,83T 

Congregational .  9,7°4 

German  Evangelical .  8,252 

Jewish .  9)i87 


Though  the  population  of  New  York  in  1890  was 
much  larger  than  that  of  Chicago,  it  had  a  much  smaller 
membership  of  many  Protestant  sects.  Chicago  had 
more  Congregationalists,  German  Evangelicals,  Luthei- 
ans,  and  Methodists,  but  it  had  only  one-fourth  as  many 
Jews,  half  as  many  Presbyterians,  and  less  than  a  quarter 
as  many  Episcopalians. 


4  The  denominational  families  having  more  than  100,- 
000  communicants  each  are  as  follows: 


Catholic . 6, 257, 871 

Methodist  . 4,589,284 

Baptist . 3)7i2,4°8 

Presbyterian . i,278,332 

Lutheran . 1,231,072 

Episcopal .  54°,  5°9 


Reformed .  3°9,458 

United  Brethren .  225,281 

Latter-Day  Saints .  166, 125 

Jewish .  130,496 

Friends .  107,208 

Christians .  103,722 


6  Geo.  Wm.  Curtis.  Orations  and  Addresses,  vol.  ii.s 
12,  13.  The  ablest  discussion  of  Civil  Service  Reform  to 
be  found  in  any  single  volume  is  contained  in  this  book, 
the  whole  of  which  is  devoted  to  this  subject. 


198 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


6 The  quotation  is  from  “The  American  Common¬ 
wealth,”  vol.  ii.,  99,  100.  Chapter  XV.  discusses  the 
spoils  system  lucidly. 

7  Mrs.  Rena  Michaels  Atchison,  in  a  remarkable 
brochure  on  “Un-American  Immigration,”  summarizes 
these  reports.  See  pp.  14-40.  Her  book  deserves  the 
careful  attention  of  students  of  sociology. 


8  TABLE  SHOWING  THE  TOTAL  NUMBER  OF  IMMIGRANTS 
WHO  HAVE  ENTERED  THE  UNITED  STATES 
FROM  1820  TO  1892,  INCLUSIVE. 


Years 

Ending 

Annual 

Total 

Years 

Ending 

Annual 

Total 

Years 

Ending 

Annual 

Total 

1820 

10,311 

1845 

119,896 

1869 

429,203 

1821 

11,644 

1846 

158,649 

1870 

419,998 

1822 

8,549 

1847 

239,482 

1871 

4I5G55 

1823 

8,265 

1848 

229,483 

1872 

498,823 

1824 

9,627 

1849 

299,683 

1873 

483,459 

1825 

12,858 

1850 

380,904 

1874 

325,913 

1826 

I3,908 

1851 

408,828 

1875 

259,339 

1827 

2L777 

1852 

397,343 

1876 

230,774 

1828 

30,184 

1853 

400,982 

1877 

141,857 

1829 

24,513 

1854 

460,474 

1878 

138,469 

1830 

24,837 

1855 

230,476 

1879 

177,826 

1831 

23,880 

1856 

224,096 

1880 

457,257 

1832 

61,654 

1857 

27L558 

1881 

669,431 

*833 

59,925 

1858 

144,652 

1882 

788,992 

1834 

67,948 

1859 

155,302 

1883 

603,322 

1835 

48,716 

i860 

179,469 

1884 

518,592 

1836 

80,972 

1861 

112,604 

1885 

395,346 

1837 

84,959 

1862 

114,301 

1886 

334,203 

1838 

45A59 

1863 

199,743 

1887 

490,109 

1839 

74,666 

1864 

221,531 

1888 

546,889 

1840 

92,207 

1865 

287,390 

1889 

444,427 

1841 

87,805 

1866 

359,940 

1890 

455,302 

1842 

110,980 

1867 

339,627 

1891 

560,319 

1843 

56,529 

1868 

326,232 

1892 

374,741 

1844 

84,764 

Total.... 

18,128,131 

APPENDIX. 


199 


9  TABLE  showing  the  increase  of  urban 

POPULATION  FOR  1880,  1890. 


Divisions. 

Total  Population. 

1890 

1880 

62,622,250 

i7,40L545 

8,857,920 

22,362,279 

10,972,894 

3,o27,6i3 

50,155,783 

14,507,407 

7,597,197 

17, 364, m 

8,9i9,37i 

1,767,697 

OOUl  11  AtictllLlL  •  •••••* 

Divisions. 

Urban  Population. 

No.  of  Cities,  and 
Per  Cent,  of  Urban 
to  Total 
Population. 

1890 

1880 

1890 

1880 

United  States . . . 

North  Atlantic . 

South  Atlantic . 

North  Central . 

South  Central . 

Western . 

18,235,670 

8,976,426 

1,420,455 

5,971,272 

i,i47U47 

900,370 

11,318, 547 
6,254,096 
942,387 
3,024,679 
673,708 
423,677 

443 

195 

36 
152 

37 

,  ^ 

29.12 

5I-58 

16.04 

25.90 

10.45 

29.73 

286 

137 

23 

95 

20 

11 

22.57 

43-H 

12.40 

17.42 

7-55 

23-97 

200 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


10  TABTE  SHOWING  THE  NUMBER  OF  MATES  IN  19  CHIEF 
CITIES  (1)  OF  NATIVE  PARENTAGE,  (2)  FOREIGN 
BORN,  (3)  AND  OF  FOREIGN  PARENTAGE. 


Ci.TXES. 

Native 

Parentage. 

Foreign 

Born. 

Foreign 

Parentage 

New  York . 

138,457 

314,481 

285,992 

Brooklyn . 

108,101 

128,672 

152,191 

Boston . . 

67.447 

72,792 

72,889 

Philadelphia . . . 

202,046 

131,762 

158,355 

Pittsburg . 

35,553 

39,978 

44,206 

Cincinnati . 

39,915 

35,509 

63,833 

Cleveland . 

30,621 

51,040 

49,225 

Chicago . 

118,230 

237,523 

204,147 

Detroit . 

21,444 

39,95i 

38,192 

Milwaukee .  . . 

13,325 

50,906 

46,263 

Minneapolis . 

28,613 

34,222 

23,985 

St.  Paul . 

16,412 

29,085 

23,172 

St.  Tonis . 

60,096 

61,586 

93,185 

San  Francisco .  . 

33,413 

57,687 

53,189 

New  Orleans . 

33,207 

16,474 

34,850 

Buffalo . 

29, 209 

45,839 

52,218 

Jersey  City . 

20,967 

27,290 

32,635 

Touisville . 

3t,°66 

11,990 

6,680 

22, 208 

Washington . . . 

52,354 

13,719 

11  Both  here  and  in  Europe  there  is  an  increasing 
appetite  for  morphine — the  worst  and  most  hopeless 
form  of  intoxication.  In  Paris  this  craving  has  become  a 
mania.  It  prevails  among  all  classes  and  both  sexes. 
An  article  on  this  subject  in  the  New  York  Herald , 
Nov.  22,  1896,  says : 

“The  question  which  the  French  people  are  asking  is, 
How  are  we  to  account  for  this  strange  epidemic,  which 
is  evidently  spreading  among  all  classes  of  society  ?  To 
this  question  a  startling  reply  has  been  given  by  an  emi¬ 
nent  French  specialist  and  physician.  Here  is  what  he 
says : — 

“  ‘  I  do  not  desire  my  name  to  be  mentioned,'  he  began, 
‘because  what  I  have  to  say  is  not  very  flattering  to  a 
certain  number  of  my  colleagues,  and  while  I  have  noth- 


APPENDIX. 


201 


ing  to  conceal,  I  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  inclination 
to  take  part  in  any  paper  war  on  the  subject.’ 

“  It  may  be  stated  here  that  this  specialist  is  one  of  the 
best  known  living  authorities  on  nervous  diseases. 

“  ‘  The  mania  for  morphine,’  he  continued,  ‘  is  growing 
daily  and  among  all  classes.  Statistics  on  the  subject 
are  not  easily  obtainable,  because  morphine  fiends  are 
very  crafty,  and  because  no  exterior  symptoms  condemn 
them  in  public,  as  is  the  case  with  drunkards  and  epilep¬ 
tics.  From  what  a  number  of  pharmacists  and  physicians 
have  told  me,  however,  I  estimate  that  there  are  not  less 
than  fifty  thousand  persons  in  Paris  who  use  morphine 
secretly  and  almost  constantly.  Most  of  those  who  be¬ 
long  to  this  army  of  degenerates  are  women  ;  indeed,  I 
should  put  their  number  at  not  less  than  thirty  thousand. 

“  ‘  More  instructive,  however,  than  this  general  state¬ 
ment  are  the  following  statistics,  which  have  been  care¬ 
fully  compiled,  and  which  show  how  the  vice  has  spread 
among  persons  of  the  various  professions.  Here  is  a 
table  of  230  morphine  fiends  who  belong  to  twenty-two 
different  professions  or  trades.  You  will  see — and  this 
is  the  most  startling  point — that  the  first  rank  on  the  list 
is  occupied  bv  physicians  and  their  wives,  the  number  of 
victims  among  them  being  sixty-nine.  In  the  second 
rank  we  find  army  officers  and  their  wives,  the  number 
of  victims  among  them  being  twenty  ;  in  the  third,  phar¬ 
macists  and  their  families,  and  in  the  fourth  workingmen 
and  workingwomen,  the  number  of  victims  among  them 
being  eighteen.  Among  members  of  the  other  profes¬ 
sions,  namely  college  professors,  magistrates,  literary 
men,  artists  and  others,  the  number  of  victims  varies 
from  two  to  ten. 

“  ‘  Now,  the  amazing  fact  is  that  physicians,  who,  from 


202 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


their  knowledge  of  the  danger,  ought  to  be  most  of  all 
beyond  the  reach  of  contamination,  should  actually  be  at 
the  head  of  the  list  of  morphine  fiends.  To  many  the 
reason  will  seem  obvious.  The  explanation  is  that 
physicians  become  addicted  to  the  drug  through  weari¬ 
ness  and  through  their  disgust  with  the  most  ungrateful 
of  all  professions.  In  other  words,  being  often  dis¬ 
appointed  and  obliged  to  struggle  unsuccessfully  i'or 
their  daily  bread,  they  have  sought  in  the  discreet  and 
comparatively  silent  intoxication  of  morphine  that  oblivion 
which  the  workingman  finds  in  raw  brandy. 

“  ‘  Pharmacists  are  quite  as  often  to  blame  as  phy? 
sicians.  If  they  were  to  strictly  obey  that  law  which 
prohibits  them  from  selling  drugs  except  on  a  regular 
prescription,  which  must  be  renewed  at  the  time  of  each 
purchase,  the  facilities  for  obtaining  morphine  would  be 
much  diminished.  Certainly,  those  persons  who  could 
not  get  physicians  to  help  them  out  of  their  difficulty 
would  find  it  very  hard  to  get  the  drug.  A  druggist  was 
recently  punished  for  having  sold  in  one  month  1,500 
grammes  of  morphine  without  any  formality  to  one  of 
his  lady  customers. 

“  ‘  It  is  just  as  easy  to  procure  syringes  as  it  is  to  pro¬ 
cure  the  drug  itself.  Any  one  who  wants  them  can  buy 
them  at  stores  where  surgical  instruments  are  sold,  and 
also  at  certain  second-hand  stores.  Jewelers  even  deal 
in  them.  I  know  one  who  was  on  the  point  of  becoming 
a  bankrupt  when  he  conceived  the  happy  idea  of  manu¬ 
facturing  these  deadly  little  weapons.  His  customers 
were  mostly  women,  and  he  knew  well  what  they  wanted. 
Instead  of  filling  his  store  windows  with  bare,  unadorned 
syringes,  he  hid  them  deftly  in  scent  bottles,  fans,  brace¬ 
lets,  and  even  in  parasol  handles.  The  result  was,  that 


APPENDIX. 


203 


he  soon  paid  his  debts  and  is  now  on  the  high  load  to 
fortune. 

“  ‘  There  are  four  periods  in  the  evolution  of  the  disease 
—  that  of  initiation,  that  of  hesitation,  that  of  morphino- 
mania,  and  that  of  cachexia,  the  end  of  which  is  death. 
How  long  does  it  take  to  pass  from  the  initiatoiy  stage  to 
that  of  morphinomania  ?  That  depends  on  the  tempera¬ 
ment,  those  persons  who  are  most  nervous  being  most 
amenable  to  the  disease.  As  a  rule,  however,  after  a 
month  and  a  half  of  injections  at  the  rate  of  from  two  to 
five  centigrams  per  dose,  a  desire  is  created  which  is 

horribly  difficult  to  conquer. 

<“  Many  so-called  remedies  for  the  disease  are  being 
tried.  In  Germany,  where  the  scourge  rages  with  even 
more  intensity  than  in  France,  special  asylums  have  been 
established,  in  which  are  employed  different  methods  of 
treatment,  such  as  the  Levinstein  or  abrupt  method, 
the  slow,  or  progressive  method,  and  the  Eilummeyer,  or 
semi-rapid  method.  This  last  seems  to  have  given  the 
best  results.  Here  in  France  we  still  use  the  individual 
and  persuasive  treatment.  Do  what  we  will,  however, 
the  incontestable  fact  remains  —  and  it  is  a  sad  confes¬ 
sion —  that  of  all  known  voluntary  diseases  for  which  a 
treatment  has  been  found,  morphinomania  is  one  of  those, 
if  not  the  one,  which  is  most  rarely  cured.’ 

“  This  terrible  arraignment  of  physicians  is  causing 
much  talk  in  France,  and  many  are  wondering  whether 
the  great  medical  societies  will  take  any  notice  of  it. 
That  they  can  utterly  disprove  the  grave  charges  made 
against  physicians  is  not  believed  to  be  possible,  but 
they  may  -be  able  to  show  that  the  statistics  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  are  insufficient  and  misleading.  Possibly  they  may 
preserve  a  dignified  silence.” 


204 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


What  is  said  above  of  Paris,  applies  equally  to  New 
York.  Another  of  the  metropolitan  journals  recently 
had  this  to  say : 

“  If  all  the  men  and  women  in  New  York  who  are  vic¬ 
tims  of  the  opium,  morphine,  and  cocaine  habit  were 
gathered  together,  they  would  outnumber  the  entire  popu¬ 
lation  of  Troy.  In  Troy  at  the  last  census  there  were 
60,000  people,  and  an  uptown  druggist  in  New  York,  who 
has  kept  in  pretty  close  touch  with  the  sale  of  these 
drugs  for  a  number  of  years  back,  estimates  the  number 
of  people  in  New  York  who  habitually  use  them  medicin¬ 
ally  but  for  their  intoxicating  effects,  at  easily  65,000. 

“The  same  authority  estimates  an  annual  expenditure 
of  twenty-five  dollars  a  person  for  the  drugs,  making  a 
total  of  $1,625,000. 

“  It  has  long  been  notorious  that  the  law  governing  the 
sale  of  these  poisons  is  flagrantly  violated,  and  that  it  re¬ 
quires  but  a  very  moderate  degree  of  tact  for  any  person 
to  purchase  as  much  opium,  morphine,  or  cocaine,  as  he 
or  she  wishes,  and  that  from  New  York  drug  stores 
which  are  considered  among  the  most  reputable  in  the 
city. 

“  The  druggist  who  furnished  this  information  to  a 
Sunday  World  reporter  admits  that  he  sells  every  year 
150  ounces  of  opium,  about  10,000  half-grain  pills  for 
smoking,  and  that  he  has  about  two  thousand  customers. 
But  this,  of  course,  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  cocaine 
trade. 

“  Cocaine,  which  is  about  as  deadly  as  any  of  the  in¬ 
toxicant  drugs,  was  extensively  advertised  during  Gen. 
Grant’s  illness.  It  was  used  constantly  from  the  time 
the  cancerous  affection  of  the  General’s  tongue  became 
fully  developed,  to  relieve  the  constant  pain,  which  with- 


appendix. 


205 


out  some  alleviating  drug  would  have  been  at  times  al¬ 
most  unendurable.  The  papers  were  filled  with  cocaine 
stories,  and  the  soothing  effects  of  the  drug  were  widely 
proclaimed,  but  unfortunately  without  a  correspondingly 
earnest  warning  that  its  use  was  full  of  peril.  Until  then 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  thousands  of  people,  who  since  have 
become  its  victims,  never  had  heard  of  cocaine. 

“  The  New  York  druggist  above  mentioned  estimates 
that  there  are  quite  1 5,000  victims  in  New  York  alone. 
The  sale  of  the  drug  is  nearly  as  great  as  the  sale  of  mor¬ 
phine.  The  woman  known  as  Eva  Ray  Hamilton  was 
in  a  cocaine  frenzy  when  she  committed  the  act  which 
brought  out  all  the  wretched  scandal,  which  sent  one  of 
the  most  promising  young  men  in  NewAork  to  his  death. 

“  The  doctors  and  the  hospitals  are  constantly  ti  eating 
victims  of  the  habit.  Only  a  short  time  ago  a  man,  well 
known  in  New  York,  after  unavailingly  trying  to  break 
the  habit  by  his  own  will-power,  went  to  a  medical  insti¬ 
tution.  There  literally  was  not  an  unpunctured  spot  on 
his  body  where  he  could  introduce  a  hypodermic  syringe. 
He  was  a  mass  of  ulcers  from  head  to  foot,  no  less  than 
137  of  them  being  in  a  painfully  aggravated  condition. 

“  Quack  throat  and  catarrh  medicines  are  often  mere 
vehicles  for  cocaine,  and  through  their  use  many  people 
are  innocently  and  unconsciously  led  into  the  fatal  snare. 
As  an  alleviator  of  pain,  by  benumbing  the  gums  111  den¬ 
tistry,  cocaine  is  often  recklessly  used  by  practitioners, 
and  that  is  another  fruitful  source  for  the  production  of 
cocaine  ‘  fiends.’  The  malady,  moreover,  is  steadily  on 

the  increase. 

“  There  are  plenty  of  laws  in  the  statute  books  of  New 
York  to  stop  all  this,  but  of  what  avail  are  laws  unless 
they  are  enforced  ?  ” 


206 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


12  Hon.  Louis  C.  Hughes,  ex-Governor  of  Arizona,  has 
lately  written  an  able  and  convincing  article  presenting 
the  claims  of  Prohibition.  After  noting  the  universal 
admission  that  there  is  something  wrong  in  the  machin¬ 
ery  of  government,  and  stating  the  remedies  presented 
by  the  Republican,  Democratic,  and  Prohibition  parties, 
Governor  Hughes  says : 

“The  drink  traffic  annually  consumes  an  amount  equal 
to  more  than  60  per  cent,  of  the  total  gold,  silver,  and 
paper  currrency  in  the  United  States.  A  sum  equal  to 
nearly  twice  the  capital  of  all  its  national  banks  ;  four 
times  greater  than  the  total  income  of  the  United  States 
government ;  more  than  one-third  as  much  as  the  total 
value  of  gold  and  silver  produced  in  the  United  States 
during  the  last  35  years,  and  more  than  one-half  the  value 
of  the  total  gold  and  silver  produced  in  the  United  States 
during  the  last  20  years. 

“  Where  is  there  a  trust  or  an  aggregation  of  capital, 
so  powerful,  so  destructive  to  the  prosperity  of  the  people, 
so  threatening  to  the  safety  of  the  government  ?  Why 
do  not  these  political  parties  make  battle  against  this 
giant  trust,  this  octopus  which  strangles  and  sucks  the 
life  out  of  every  industry  in  the  land,  tenfold  more  than 
all  other  trusts  and  monopolies  combined  ?  Instead,  they 
license  and  protect  this  evil  by  federal  and  State  laws. 

“The  Democrat  and  Populist  insist  that  the  free  coinage 
of  silver  is  of  all  others  the  one  thing  which  will  dissipate 
the  ills  complained  of.  Yet  while  our  annual  drink  bill 
is  $1,237,828,000,  the  total  silver  product  of  the  United 
States  for -the  last  22  years  was  $1,214,751,000,  or 
$23,000,000  less  than  the  drink  traffic  for  one  year. 
Consider  the  striking  contrast  as  to  the  relative  import¬ 
ance  of  these  two  issues.  It  will  take  more  than  22 


APPENDIX. 


207 


years  to  produce  an  amount  of  silver  equal  to  one  year  s 
drink  bill. 

“No  !  No  !  Free  coinage  of  silver  will  not  bring  the 
relief  as  long  as  we  have  free  rum.  We  may  increase 
the  volume  of  money  indefinitely,  but  as  long  as  it  courses 
through  the  saloon,  it  will  prove  a  greater  curse  than 
blessing. 

“  The  Republican  party  pledges  restoration  of  pros¬ 
perous  times  by  increasing  the  tariff.  This  may  protect 
the  manufacturer,  but  where  comes  the  benefit  to  the 
farmer,  the  working  classes,  the  consumers  ?  They  will 
have  to  pay  more  for  their  manufactured  goods,  their 
farming  utensils,  and  while  the  manufacturer  will  grow 
richer,  the  consumer  will  grow  poorer. 

“  But  in  the  triumph  of  Prohibition  the  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars  which  now  go  to  the  dram-shops  will 
go  for  food,  clothing,  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of 
life.  The  farmer,  the  builder,  the  factory,  and  every 
industry  will  thrill  with  new  life,  generated  by  this  vast 
volume  of  money  coursing  through  their  veins,  adding 
vitality  and  stimulating  every  industry  in  the  land,  creat¬ 
ing  consumption  beyond  production,  thus  advancing  the 
price  of  labor  by  creating  a  demand  therefor.” 

13  A  writer  in  the  London  Times,  referring  to  the  Goth¬ 
enburg  system,  says  : 

“The  British  Vice-Consul  at  Skensfiord  in  his  latest 
reports  states  that  during  the  last  year  the  time  expired 
for  which  two  of  the  towns  in  his  district  —  Skien  and 
Brevig —  had  the  right  of  having  the  Gothenburg  system 
of  Bolags,  or  Samlags,  for  the  sale  of  spirits  as  a  mon¬ 
opoly.  According  to  the  new  liquor-law  the  inhabitants 
of  towns  have  the  right  of  vetoing  the  further  existence 
of  any  Bolag  in  their  town.  Both  Skien  and  Brevig  voted 


208 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


by  large  majorities  against  it,  so  that  they  have  no  longer 
those  Bolags,  which  were  so  warmly  advocated  by  the 
Norwegian  press,  when  the  question  of  the  Gothenburg 
system  was  fully  ventilated  a  short  time  ago.  The  fact 
of  the  Bolags  having  been  voted  down  in  several  other 
towns  in  Norway,  besides  Skien  and  Brevig,  shows  that 
they  are  not  so  popular  as  might  be  supposed.  But  it 
should  be  stated  that  it  is  mainly  owing  to  the  persever¬ 
ing  agitation  of  the  teetotal  element,  aided  by  the 
women’s  votes,  that  the  Samlags  are  being  ousted.  In 
towns  where  these  institutions  are  thus  abolished,  and 
where  no  privileges  for  the  sale  of  spirits  are  still  held  by 
private  individuals  from  former  days,  spirits  can  not  now 
be  bought  in  smaller  quantities  than  250  liters,  which 
practically  means  the  non-sale  of  spirits  in  such  towns. 

14  “The  celebrated  declaration  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  in  the  General  Conference  of  1888,  may  now 
fairly  be  said  to  represent  the  opinion  of  the  most  en¬ 
lightened  and  religiously  earnest  portion  of  Christendom 
at  large,  so  that  in  citing  this  we  summarize  scores  of 
equivalent  declarations  from  other  religious  bodies  :  ‘  The 
liquor  traffic  can  never  be  legalized  without  sin.  License, 
high  or  low,  is  vicious  in  principle  and  powerless  as  a 
remedy!  ’  ’’—Joseph  Cook.  Art.  on  License,  in  “  Cyclo¬ 
pedia  of  Temperance  and  Prohibition,”  362. 

15  A  SUGGESTED  CONSTITUTION. 

OF  THE 

CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  LEAGUE  OF . 

ARTICLE  I. — Name: 

This  organization  shall  be  known  as  the  Christian 

Citizenship  League  of  the  (city  or  county)  of - 

auxiliary  to  the  National  Christian  Citizenship  League. 


APPENDIX. 


209 


ARTICLE  II. — Object. 

The  object  shall  be  to  educate  the  public  con¬ 
science;  and  to  secure  a  more  generous  support  for 
ALL  MOVEMENTS,  which  make  for  the  PUBLIC  WELFARE. 

ARTICLE  III. — Membership. 

Any  PERSON,  in  sympathy  with  its  object,  may  become 
a  member  of  the  League  upon  the  following  conditions: 

1.  By  making  application  through  a  member. 

2.  By  subscribing  to  this  Constitution. 

3.  By  the  payment  of - 

Membership  in  the  League  is  continued  by  the  payment 
of - per  year. 

ARTICLE  IV. — Officers. 

The  officers  of  this  League  shall  consist  of  a  President, 
Vice-Presidents,  Recording  Secretary,  Corresponding 
Secretary,  and  Treasurer.  These  officials  shall  hold 
office  for  one  year,  shall  perform  the  duties  usually 
devolving  upon  such  officials,  and  shall  constitute  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  League.  The  Treasurer 
shall  be  required  to  furnish  such  bonds  or  security  for 
the  faithful  performance  of  his  duty  as  shall  be  satisfac¬ 
tory  to  the  Executive  Committee. 

ARTICLE  V. — The  Working  Committee. 

The  working  committee  shall  consist  of  one  representa¬ 
tive  (or  more)  from  each  church  or  young  people’s  society; 
at  least  one  from  the  pastors  and  one  from  each  other 
organization  in  the  city  (or  country)  in  sympathy  with 
the  work  of  the  League.  It  shall  be  their  duty,  under 
direction  of  the  Executive  Committee,  to  aid  in  carrying 
out  the  plans  of  the  League  and  to  secure  as  far  as  possi- 


210 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


ble  the  cooperation  of  all  the  members  of  t  heir  own 
organizations  to  that  end. 

ARTICLE  VI. — Management. 

The  Executive  Committee  shall  consist  of  the  officers 
of  the  League,.  .  .  of  whom  shall  constitute  a  quorum  for 
the  transaction  of  business.  This  committee  shall  man¬ 
age  the  affairs  of  the  League,  and  make  rules  for  its  gov¬ 
ernment  not  inconsistent  with  this  Constitution.  An 

annual  business  meeting  shall  be  held  on  the  first - 

after  the  first - in - at  such  place  as  shall  be  found 

convenient.  At  this  meeting  shall  occur  the  election  of 
officers. 

ARTICLE  VII. — Amendments. 

This  Constitution  may  be  amended  at  any  regular  or 
special  meeting  of  the  League,  ten  days  notice  of  such 
amendment  having  been  given  ;  and  providing  the  same 
shall  be  approved  by  two-thirds  of  the  members  present 
and  voting. 

16 THE  CHURCH  ALLIANCE 

of . 

It  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  constitutions  be  uniform.  This  is 
only  suggested  as  a  form  that  has  been  found  helpful. 


CONSTITUTION. 


ARTICLE  I. — Name. 

This  organization  shall  be  known  as  The  Church 

Alliance  of . ,  auxiliary  to  the  social  work 

of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  for  the  United  States  of 
America. 


APPENDIX. 


21  I 


ARTICLE  II— Objects. 

Believing  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  Savior  of  society 
as  well  as  of  the  individual,  it  shall  be  the  object  of  this 
Alliance  to  apply  the  principles  of  Christ’s  teachings  to 
the  solution  of  social  problems,  with  a  view  to  aiding 
the  churches  in  the  accomplishment  of  their  social  mis¬ 
sion. 

This  Alliance  shall  seek  to  prove  the  deep,  practical 
interest  of  the  allied  churches  in  whatever  concerns 
human  welfare. 

It  shall  aid  such  directly  religious  efforts  as  it  may 
approve  for  united  action,  and  further  such  moral  and 
civic  movements  as  it  may  deem  to  be  of  large  impor¬ 
tance. 

Its  object  shall  include  the  aid,  in  all  practical  ways, 
of  such  existing  organizations  as,  in  its  judgment,  are 
wisely  seeking  the  common  well-being. 

The  Alliance  shall  stand  in  the  name  of  Christ  on  the 
side  of  practical  religion,  good  citizenship,  the  enforce¬ 
ment  of  law,  the  promotion  of  sobriety,  the  prevention  of 
cruelty,  the  alleviation  of  suffering,  the  correction  of  in¬ 
justice,  the  rescue  of  the  unfortunate,  the  reformation  of 
the  depraved,  and  for  such  kindred  ends  as  pertain  to  the 
true  social  mission  of  the  church  ;  it  being  understood 
that  all  activities  of  the  Alliance  shall  be  subservient  to 
spiritual  results,  which  must  always  be  the  supreme  ob¬ 
ject  of  the  churches. 

In  the  furtherance  of  such  objects  it  is  distinctly  de¬ 
clared  that  the  Alliance  shall  not  attempt  to  exercise 
ecclesiastical  or  administrative  authority  over  the  allied 
churches.  It  shall  be  the  servant  of  the  churches, 
recommending  such  united  action  as  it  deems  most  wise. 
It  shall  be  a  purely  voluntary  association,  which  leaves 


212 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


the  churches,  with  all  their  diverging  views  of  doctrine 
and  polity,  absolutely  unsolicited  either  to  worship  or  to 
fellowship  which  would  contradict  their  independent  con¬ 
victions.  Nor  shall  it  lay  the  churches  under  any  finan¬ 
cial  obligations. 

ARTICLE  III.— Membership. 

Section  i. — All  persons  in  sympathy  with  the  objects 
of  the  Alliance  and  purposing  to  co-operate  with  it  may 
become  members  by  signing  the  Constitution. 

Sec.  2. — Any  church  in  sympathy  with  the  objects  of 
this  Alliance  and  purposing  to  cooperate  with  it  may 
join  the  same  by  electing  two  of  its  members  to  the 
Board  of  Managers. 

ARTICLE  IV.— Management. 

The  management  of  the  Alliance  shall  be  vested  in  a 
Board  of  Managers,  to  consist  of  the  pastor  of  each  co¬ 
operating  church,  and  two  of  its  members,  elected  by 
said  church  prior  to  the  last  Monday  of  October. 

The  President,  Secretary,  and  Treasurer  of  the  Alli¬ 
ance  shall  be  ex-officio  President,  Secretary,  and  Treas¬ 
urer  of  the  Board  of  Managers. 

ARTICLE  V.— Officers. 

The  officers  of  the  Alliance  shall  be  chosen  by  the 
Board  of  Managers.  These  officers  shall  be  a  President, 
a  Vice-President  from  each  cooperating  denomination,  a 
Secretary,  a  Treasurer,  and  an  Executive  Committee 
consisting  of  the  President,  Secretary,  and  Treasurer  ex- 
officio,  together  with  seven  other  members. 


APPENDIX. 


213 


ARTICLE  VI —Amendments. 

This  Constitution  may  be  amended  at  any  regular  or 
special  meeting  of  the  Alliance  by  a  two-thiids  vote  of 
the  members  present,  provided  the  amendment  shall  have 
been  previously  approved  by  the  Board  of  Managers. 

17  Read  the  chapter  on  “  The  Social  Evil,”  in  Park- 
hurst’s  “  Our  Fight  With  Tammany,”  where  this  charge 
is  proved. 


INDEX. 


Adams,  John,  70. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  71. 

Adams,  Sam,  36. 

Alcohol,  93. 

Altgeld,  ex- Gov.,  63. 

Angelo,  Michael,  33. 

America,  described,  20. 

American  Citizen,  defined,  14. 

American  Citizenship,  Essential  principle  of,  14;  bought 
with  a  great  price,  22. 

American  Republic,  basis  of,  13. 

American  Secular  Union,  The,  148. 

Anne,  Reign  of  Queen.  128.  ...  ( 

Appetite,  racial,  91  ;  legitimate  and  illegitimate  uses  of, 

104. 

Arbitration,  184. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  136. 

Athens,  154. 

Bacon,  Lord  (quoted),  132,  140,  192. 

Ballot  Box,  prostituted,  56,  59. 

Baltimore,  The  moral  condition  of,  121. 

Baptist  prayer  meetings,  41. 

Baptist  Young  People's  Unions,  160. 

Barak,  39. 

Barton,  Clara,  31. 

Bede,  The  Venerable,  91. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward  (quoted),  127,  128. 

Birmingham,  Eng.,  185. 

Black  Prince,  The,  132. 

Body,  care  of  the,  189. 

Bonaparte,  Chas.  J.  (quoted),  121. 

Boodling,  63. 


215 


2l6 


INDEX. 


Boss,  Evolution  of  the,  63. 

Bosworth,  The  battle  of,  132. 

Bronte,  Charlotte,  141. 

Brougham,  Lord  (quoted),  20,  188. 

Bryce,  Prof.  Jas.  (quoted),  76. 

Buckle,  The  historian  (quoted),  25. 

Bull  fights,  132. 

Burns,  Robt.  (quoted),  19,  136. 

Canova,  The  Sculptor,  33. 

Cards,  122,  123. 

Carlyle,  Thos.,  18. 

Catherine,  of  Russia,  29. 

Catholics  in  Maryland,  47. 

Census,  U.  S.,  romance  of,  51. 

Chamouni,  Vale  of,  155. 

Chicago.  Moral  condition  of,  121. 

China,  170. 

Christian  Citizenship  League,  The  National,  175,  176; 

platform  of,  176,  177. 

Christian  Endeavor  Societies,  159,  160. 

Christianity,  The  fundamental  law  of  U.  S.,  47  ;  should 
be  sociological  to-day,  171  ;  opportunity  of,  169,  170; 
weakness  of,  170. 

Church  Membership  in  U.  S.,  52,  53 ;  wealth  of  the,  53  ; 

relation  of  to  education,  54,  55. 

Cities,  growth  of  in  U.  S.,  84;  abroad,  184,  185. 

Citizen,  meaning  of,  11 ;  right  of  female  to  vote,  23. 
Citizens,  preoccupation  and  indifference  of  good,  20. 
Citizenship,  Christian,  45-47. 

Civil  Service,  The,  degraded,  69;  practice  of  England, 
Germany,  and  France  regarding,  69 ;  early  American 
practice,  70,  71  ;  change  in,  71  ;  reform  of,  78,  79. 
Clark,  Francis  E„  159. 

Clark,  Dr.  (quoted),  172. 

Clay,  Henry  (quoted),  71,72. 

Collecticism,  Municipal,  185. 

Columbian  Fair,  The,  153. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  46. 

“  Combine,”  described,  63. 

Committees,  Christian  Citizenship,  160. 


INDEX. 


217 


Commons,  Prof.  John  R.,  178. 

Comstock,  Anthony.  135. 

Constitution.  The  U.  S.  (quoted),  13,  23. 

Convention,  The  City,  59,  60. 

Cooper  Institute,  153. 

Copernicus,  33. 

Corporation,  Cooperative,  191. 

Croker,  Boss,  63. 

Curtis,  Geo.  Wm.  (quoted),  34,  35,  73. 

Dante  (quoted),  101. 

Deborah,  39. 

Defoe,  Dan’h,  141. 

Demosthenes,  62,  154. 

Dice,  122,  123. 

Dickens,  Chas.,  141. 

D’Israeli,  The  Elder,  129. 

Drunkenness,  heriditary,  90,  91  ;  physiological  explana¬ 
tion,  92;  influence  of  environment  on,  92,  93. 
Duguesclin,  128,  132. 

Du  Maurier,  137. 

Duty,  Personalized,  163. 

Economic  Inequality,  181,  182;  reacts  on  legislation,  182. 
Election  Day,  the  Sabbath  of  patriotism,  65. 

Eliot,  Geo.,  141. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  29. 

Emerson,  R.  W.  (quoted),  173. 

Epworth  Leagues,  159, 

Europe,  contrasted  with  America,  18. 

Evangelical  Alliance,  The,  177. 

Evangelical  Church  membership  in  U.  S.,  52,  53. 

Everett,  Edward  (quoted),  126,  127. 

Ferrero,  Guglielmo  (quoted),  137,  138. 

Field,  Justice,  1 5 1 ,  152, 

Fisk.  Prof.  John  (quoted),  172. 

Franklin,  Benj.  (quoted),  141,  171. 

Freiburg,  131. 

Gambling,  122;  universal,  122;  implements  of,  122; 


218 


INDEX. 


houses  used  for,  124,  125;  banned,  125;  defined,  126; 
source  of,  128,  129;  inveteracy  of,  129,  130;  menace  to 
society,  130,  131;  political  aspects  of,  131;  alliance  of 
with  other  vices,  1 31. 

Garfield,  Pres.,  72. 

Gates,  Gen.,  22. 

George,  Henry,  181. 

George  III.,  King,  35. 

Glasgow,  Scotland,  185. 

Gorman,  Boss,  6. 

Gothenburg  System,  99,  100. 

Greece,  11. 

Greeley,  Horace,  141. 

Greene,  Gen.,  22. 

Gutenberg,  John,  131. 

Hamilton,  Alex,  (quoted),  172. 

“Hamlet”  (quoted),  101. 

Harrison,  The  first,  72. 

Hawthorne,  Nath’l,  155. 

Henry  IV.,  of  France,  128. 

Herodotus,  11. 

Holland,  12. 

Holy  Cross,  Mountain  of  the,  47. 

Hopkins,  Boss,  63. 

Hopkins,  Ellice,  1 1 5,  116. 

Horses,  used  in  gambling,  123. 

Hosmer,  Harriet,  33. 

Hulbert,  Dean  (quoted),  167-171. 

Hume,  The  historian,  144. 

T Kcpn  t  'in 

Ideals,  value  of,  187,  188. 

Idealists,  187,  188. 

Immigrants,  number  of,  82  ;  distribution  of,  84  ;  birth-rate 
among,  83  ;  urban  tendency  of,  85  ;  bad  influence  of  in 
cities,  85. 

Immigration,  welcome,  80,  81,  89;  deterioration  of,  81  ; 
consular  reports  on,  82;  industrial  effects  of,  85.  86; 
connection  with  pauper  and  criminal  statistics,  86,  87  ; 


INDEX. 


2ig 


effect  on  educational  problems,  87  ;  national  influence, 
88  ;  need  of  restriction,  88,  89;  methods,  89. 
Incarnation,  The  second,  189. 

Initiative,  The,  179,  180, 

Innovation,  Uses  of,  35,  3b. 

Italian  Republics,  12. 


Jackson,  President,  71. 

Japan,  170. 

Jay,  Chief  Justice,  47. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  70. 

Johnson,  Benjamin,  125. 

Knowledge,  importance  of  in  a  republic,  17,  18. 
Knox,  John  (quoted),  188. 


Law  and  order,  12, 

Legouve  (quoted),  110-112. 

Leo  X.,  Pope,  155.  , 

License,  failure  of,  98,  99  ;  distinguished  from  a  tax,  99. 

Lincoln,  A.  (quoted),  19.  .  . 

Liquor  dealers,  percentage  to  voters,  95  ;  nativity  of,  90, 

91. 

Liquor  traffic,  numbers  and  wealth  engaged  111,93,94; 
evil  effects  of,  94,  95  ;  controlled  largely  by  foreigners, 
95  ;  European  syndicates  interested  in,  95,  96  ;  organ¬ 
ization  of,  96;  must  be  dealt  with  by  Christian  citi¬ 
zens,  101 ;  denounced  by  the  churches,  94. 

Literature,  pernicious,  1 35“ 1 39 ;  wholesome,  140,  141. 

Livingstone,  Robert,  51. 

London,  1 16. 

Lord’s  Day,  The,  142,  143  ;  an  occasion  for  worship,  143, 
144;  home  day,  145  1  neighborly  uses  of,  145  ;  day  for 
good  works,  14b;  God’s  best  gift  toman,  14b;  assaults 
upon,  1 47—1  5 1  ;  defence  of,  151-158  ;  an  American  in¬ 
stitution,  1 56,  1 57  ;  sanitary  value  of,  151,1 58  ;  opening 
of  museums  and  libraries  on,  150,  152— 15b;  position  of 
working  classes  regarding,  15b,  157;  largely  secular¬ 
ized,  1 57. 

Louis  XIV.,  King  (quoted),  20. 


220 


INDEX. 


Lowell,  James  R.  (quoted),  76. 

Luther,  Martin,  132  ;  (quoted),  188. 

Madison,  President,  70 

Magdalenes,  treatment  of,  109,  120,  121. 

Malays,  as  gamblers,  128. 

Manchester,  England,  185. 

Marcy,  W.  L..  71. 

Marion,  General,  22. 

Marriage,  190. 

Marshall,  Chief  Justice,  47. 

Marshall,  Tom  (quoted),  21. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  32. 

Materialism,  curse  of,  187. 

Mather,  Dr.  Cotton,  141. 

Mazarine,  Cardinal,  128. 

McCrackan,  W.  D.  (quoted),  178. 

McManes,  Boss,  63. 

Medici,  The,  155. 

Mentz,  1 31. 

Methodist  prayer-meetings,  women  in,  41. 

Mexico,  132. 

Mill,  John  Stuart  (quoted),  26,  178. 

Milton,  John  (quoted),  118,  141,  168. 

Mitchell,  Maria,  33. 

Montaigne  (quoted),  108,  129. 

Mont  Blanc,  155. 

Monroe,  President,  70. 

Morality,  double  standard  of,  107,108;  male  transgres¬ 
sions  of  condoned,  107;  female  sinners  unpardoned, 
107;  statutes  concerning,  no;  the  double  standard  a 
modern  device,  114-115. 

Moses,  law  of,  on  seduction,  113,  114. 

Mott,  Lucretia,  33. 

Muller,  Prof.  Max,  172. 

Murillo,  49. 

Napoleon  (quoted),  24. 

Nation,  The,  perils  of,  48. 

Newspaper,  The  modern,  132;  Sunday  editions  of,  148; 
worldliness  of,  149,  150. 


INDKX. 


221 


New  Testament,  little  positive  legislation  in  the,  37. 

New  York  City,  120,  160. 

Nordau,  Max  (quoted),  138,  139. 

Novels,  decollete,  1 35. 

Offices,  distribution  of,  61. 

Officials,  public,  made  distributors  of  party  spoils,  72. 
Opera  Bouffe,  156. 

Organization,  needs  of  Christian,  170,  171  ;  basis  of,  17 1  ; 

objects  of,  17 1 ,  172;  methods  of,  174,  175.  176. 
Organizations,  varieties  of  in  U.  S.,  59,  60,  61. 

Otis,  Jas.  (quoted),  27,  36. 

Pall  Mall  Gazette ,  The,  116. 

Paris,  The  City  of,  147,  155* 

Parkhurst,  The  Rev.  C.  H.  (quoted),  120. 

Parties,  formation  of,  70. 

Patriotism,  Christian  revival  of,  48,  49. 

Patti,  Adelina,  33. 

Paul,  St.,  38,  39. 

Pennsylvania,  whisky  rebellion  in,  98,  135. 

People,  responsibility  of  the  in  U.  S.,  20. 

Peter,  the  Great,  29. 

Pharisees,  The,  144. 

Philip,  of  Macedon,  154. 

Phillips,  Wendell  (quoted),  16,  26,  118-120,  188. 

Pilgrims,  The  New  England,  47,  187. 

Pittsburg,  The  City  of,  135,  160. 

Platt,  Boss,  63. 

Political  system,  our,  defects,  177/178,  179,  180. 
Politician,  The  professional,  described,  63,  64. 

Politics,  The  sphere  of,  60. 

Pope,  the  poet  (quoted),  123. 

Potter,  Bishop,  147,  148. 

Power,  entails  obligation,  21. 

Primary,  The,  defined,  59;  functionsof,  59,  60;  dominated 
by  the  vices,  60 ;  connection  of  bosses  with,  60  ;  reform 
must  begin  at,  62. 

Prophetesses,  Old  Testament,  39. 

Proportional  Representation,  178,  179. 

Puritan,  The,  144. 


222 


INDEX. 


Quay,  Boss,  63. 

Raphael,  49. 

Referendum,  The,  180,  181. 

Reform,  Municipal,  161,  162. 

Renan,  E.  (quoted),  136. 

Reporters,  Methods  of,  132,  133. 

Richard  III.,  King,  132. 

“  Ring,”  revenue  of  the,  60,  61. 

Robinson,  C.  S.  (quoted),  1 57. 

Rome,  11,  12. 

Romilly,  Sir  Sam’l.,  36. 

Russell,  Earl,  149. 

Sabbath,  The  Jewish,  143;  the  Pharisaic,  144. 

Saloons,  93,  94. 

Sanitation,  163,  164. 

Schurz,  Carl  (quoted),  172. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  141. 

Seduction,  age  of  consent,  109-1 12 ;  sin  of,  defined  by 
canon  law,  113,  1 1 4 ;  Jewish  law  regarding,  114; 
ancient  law  regarding,  114;  English  law,  115. 
Semiramis,  law,  29. 

Shaftsbury  (quoted),  188. 

Shakespeare,  125  ;  (quoted),  191. 

Siamese,  The,  as  gamblers,  128,  129. 

Single  Tax,  The,  181-183. 

Social  Conditions,  162-164. 

Social  Evil,  The,  reticence  regarding,  102,  103;  essence 
of,  104-106;  sacrilege  of,  105;  involves  two  in  one 
sin,  105  ;  effects  of  on  individual  and  society,  106,  107  ; 
European  treatment  of,  107-112  ;  attempts  to  introduce 
European  methods  in  America,  109;  sources  of,  118- 
120;  political  dangers  of,  120,121, 

Society,  The  ancient,  theory  of,  11,  12;  modern  ideal  of, 
190-192. 

Somerset,  Lady,  32. 

South  Carolina,  another  liquor  traffic,  100. 

.Spain,  132. 

Sparta,  1 1. 

Spencer,  Herbert  (quoted),  172. 

Spoils  System,  The,  71-73;  used  by  bosses,  74,  75;  rea- 


INDEX- 


223 


son  for  the,  76,  77  ;  contrasted  with  English  patronage, 
77.  78. 

Stael,  De,  Mme.  (quoted),  24,  32. 

Stead,  Wm.  T.,  1 16. 

Stock  Exchange,  gambling  on  the,  126. 

Strasbourg,  The  City  of,  131. 

Strong,  Josiah  (quoted),  173,  177- 

Suffrage,  manhood,  1 3-1 5  ;  morality  and  education  the 
guards  of,  15-19;  educational  value  of,  16,  17  ;  female, 
objections  to,  considered,  23-42. 

Sumner,  Chas.  (quoted),  101. 

Sumter,  Gen.,  22. 

Supreme  Law,  The,  16. 

Swartwout,  Sam’l.  (quoted),  73. 

Switzerland,  180. 


Tacitus,  90. 

Taine,  the  historian,  90, 

Talleyrand  (quoted),  17. 

Tamerlane,  34. 

Temperance  workers,  charity  among,  98* 
Thackeray,  William  M  ,  I41* 

Therese,  Marie,  Queen,  29. 

Timor,  the  Tartar,  34. 

Titian,  49. 

Tocqueville,  de  A  ,  17. 

Tolstoi,  Count,  137. 

Town,  the  defined,  59-62. 

Tribune ,  the  Chicago  (quoted),  139. 
Tweed,  Boss,  63. 

United  States,  the  growth  of,  50-54. 


Victoria,  Queen,  29. 

Vienna,  the  city  of,  155- 

Virtue,  male,  107-1 12.  ,  .  , 

Votes,  bought  and  sold,  18,  19;  controlled  by  bosses, 


59.  62. 

Washington,  47,  70. 

Waterloo,  the  battle  of,  159- 
Watts,  Dr.  Isaac  (quoted),  105. 
Wealth,  distributed,  191. 


224 


INDEX. 


Webster,  Daniel,  47. 

Wellington,  the  Duke  of,  159. 

Wesley,  John,  166,  188. 

Westminster  Leagues,  160. 

Wheelock,  Edwin  D.  (quoted),  175. 

White  Cross  Army,  116. 

Whitefield,  the  Evangelist,  166. 

Wilde,  Oscar,  154. 

Willard,  Frances  E.  (quoted),  32,  107-109. 

Woman,  pagan,  mediaeval,  and  modern,  conceptions  of 
23-25. 

Women,  in  young  people’s  societies,  41. 

Yankees  Europeanized,  147,  148. 

Young  people’s  societies,  relation  of,  to  Christian  citizen¬ 
ship,  159-165. 


Zola,  E.,  137. 


Date  Due 

My  24  ’4t? 

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